A jury ordered Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. to pay ¥154 million ($1.3 million) in punitive damages to a former teacher who argued the drugmaker's Actos diabetes medicine caused his bladder cancer, in the company's fifth loss in trials over the drug.
Jurors in state court in Philadelphia deliberated more than two hours Friday before concluding that Osaka-based Takeda must pay the punitive award to John Kristufek for showing "reckless indifference" to his health by mishandling the diabetes drug. On Thursday, the same panel awarded Kristufek more than $2.3 million in compensatory damages.
Kristufek, a former high school math teacher, is the fifth Actos patient to convince a jury that Takeda's former top-selling drug causes bladder cancer. Last year, a federal jury in Louisiana ordered Takeda and Eli Lilly & Co., which at one time sold Actos in the U.S., to pay $9 billion in punitive damages to a shopkeeper who blamed his cancer on the drug. That award was cut to $36.8 million.
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