Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda has offered more than $2.2 billion to settle thousands of US lawsuits over the diabetes drug Actos, the news agency Bloomberg reports.
The proposal is said to provide for awards of about $275,000 in each of the more than 8,000 lawsuits filed over the drug, alleging that it caused bladder cancer. The plaintiffs claim that Takeda downplayed those concerns and misled regulators about the risks.
The first payout offered concerning Actos is said to be part of an effort by Takeda to avoid further jury verdicts such as the $9 billion award in a Louisiana case last year. A federal judge later slashed that amount to $36.8 million.
Some of the attorneys representing victims have told news agencies that the $2.2 billion settlement would be insufficient.
More than 3,500 of the pending Actos cases were consolidated before a federal judge in Louisiana. State courts in California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are said to be considering the remaining cases.
