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SOURCE: Law Offices of Michael J. Evans, LLC
Family members of people who developed bladder cancer after taking Actos may have the right to recover money from the drug maker, even if the family member is deceased, said attorney Michael J. Evans, an experienced drug litigation attorney and owner of Law Offices of Michael J. Evans. Evans has launched a new Actos Lawsuit website and 24-hour toll-free phone service to provide information about Actos and its connection to bladder cancer. The website and phone number offer a free legal review to bladder cancer victims and their family members.
Birmingham, Alabama (PRWEB) August 06, 2012
"Family members of bladder cancer victims who took the diabetes drug Actos may have valuable legal claims of their own," says experienced drug litigation attorney Michael J. Evans. Evans says that even though many people have filed lawsuits alleging that the diabetes drug Actos caused bladder cancer, he believes many more people have valuable claims that have not been filed.
That's why Evans has launched a new Actos Lawsuit website and 24-hour toll-free phone service. Actos patients who developed bladder cancer as well as their family members are welcome to use the Free Actos Lawsuit Review Form, or call the Actos Helpline at 800-671-0996. The phone service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Both the Actos Lawsuit website and the 24-hour Actos Helpline are available to people nationwide. Evans is working with a group of attorneys who are involved in Actos lawsuits already filed in federal and state courts. Evans says his goal is to simplify the legal process for bladder cancer victims and their families.
"Some bladder cancer patients are too sick, or have died, and can't file a lawsuit on their own behalf. But drug makers can't avoid paying valid claims just because their drugs killed patients or made them too sick to file a lawsuit. Family members can usually act on the bladder cancer victim, and the family member may also have the right to collect money in addition to money collected by the bladder cancer victim (or the estate of the bladder cancer victim). For example, some states allow the recovery of money by spouses, and some allow the recovery by both spouses and children. It's important for the family members of bladder cancer victims to understand their own rights, as well as the rights of the bladder cancer victim," Evans said.
Evans says he believes visitors to the website will be especially interested in reading a page containing excerpts from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Dr. Helen Ge, who was a medical researcher for the maker of Actos during clinical trials before the drug was approved by the FDA.
Dr. Ge's entire 116-page lawsuit can be downloaded from the Actos Lawsuit website. Dr. Ge's lawsuit is U.S. ex rel. Helen Ge v. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., 10-cv-11043, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).
Evans has taken some of the more interesting allegations of Dr. Ge's lawsuit and put them on a Actos Whistleblower Lawsuit Excerpts page.
Among the more shocking allegations of the whistleblower lawsuit are these:
- Paragraph 14 alleges: “Actos, however, is not as safe as Takeda has led the FDA, healthcare professionals and the general public to believe. Rather, the FDA and the public were led to believe that Actos is safer because Takeda failed to properly report all of the Actos-related adverse events to the FDA.
- Paragraph 98 alleges that Takeda is guilty of "publicly denying the causal relationship between the Bladder cancer and Actos even though Takeda knew otherwise as far back as the 90's when Actos was tested in animals and bladder cancer was detected." Paragraph 98 also alleges that over 100 bladder cancer cases were reported to Takeda, but only 72 were reported to the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS).
Evans says it's important for the FDA to investigate the truthfulness of Dr. Ge's allegations before it approves any other drug containing pioglitazone, the active ingredient in Actos. A July 30, 2012 Drug Store News report says, "Takeda announced the resubmission to the Food and Drug Administration of applications for alogliptin and a drug that combines alogliptin with pioglitazone, the active ingredient in the Takeda drug Actos."
"It's bad enough that Actos patients are being exposed to increased risks of bladder cancer and cardiovascular problems," Evans said. "We certainly don't need to be approving the sale of another drug containing pioglitazone."
Evans said that the new Actos Lawsuit website and 800-671-0996 Actos Helpline are intended to simplify things for bladder cancer victims and their families. "It's hard enough to face the tragedy of bladder cancer without also having to deal with the legal system. It's our goal to simplify the legal process as much as possible."
About Michael J. Evans:
Michael J. Evans is owner of The Law Offices of Michael J. Evans, LLC., P.O. Box 55055,
Birmingham, AL 35255. Evans is an attorney and consumer advocate who has represented thousands of people nationwide who were harmed by drugs and medical devices. Evans helped pioneer national online legal marketing when he and two other attorneys founded the American Legal Alliance in 2000, to enable groups of law firms to use the Internet to offer services to people in need of attorneys nationwide. Evans frequently works with alliances of law firms to represent people nationwide in mass tort cases such defective drug and medical device cases, the BP oil spill, and other mass tort litigation.
Actos® is one of the trade names under which the drug pioglitazone is marketed. ACTOS is a trademark of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and used under license by Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.
Attorney advertising disclaimer: the attorney responsible for the content of this advertisement is Michael J. Evans. No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.
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