Imagine a large bloated beast called Big Pharma slipping into a stream and suddenly attacked by thousands of piranha lawyers and plaintiffs, a satisfying image that happens to be happening now in the legal world.
It’s not all of Big Pharma, though, but rather two key players, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly are in that piranha filled stream now over their controversial drug Actos, brand name for pioglitazone, a drug prescribed to reduce diabetes Type 2 blood sugar. The reason? Multiple medical studies have linked the drug to the onset of bladder cancer, a life-threatening issue which led thousands of people to seek compensation for damages caused by the drug.
These two Big Pharma bulls managed to survive three of the earlier piranha attacks, but were finally overwhelmed by a jury’s decision to pay plaintiffs Terrence and Susan Alan $1.475 million in compensatory damages and a whopping $9 billion in punitive damages. Takeda is assessed with $6 billion of the punitive award and Eli Lilly is responsible for $3 billion.
Most experts think the jury award amounts won’t hold up. Legal precedence has established a cap of punitive damages to not exceed 10 times the compensatory amount. This jury awarded punitive damages way over 10 to one compensatory, but this decision is only the beginning.