Takeda fined record-high $6b for concealing cancer risk

Japan's largest drug-maker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co has been fined a record-high $6 billion by a US jury for hiding an alleged link between its best-selling diabetes medicine "Actos" and cancer. The file picture shows a packet of "Actos."(Photo source: National Business Daily)

(ECNS) -- Japan's largest drug-maker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co has been fined a record-high $6 billion by a US jury for hiding an alleged link between its best-selling diabetes medicine and cancer, the National Business Daily reported on Wednesday.

Takeda's partner Eli Lilly, a US pharmaceutical manufacturer that marketed and sold the drug "Actos," has been ordered to pay $3 billion as co-defendant in the case.

Takeda's lawyer Kenneth D. Greisman told the National Business Daily that Takeda respectfully disagrees with the verdict, and that the company intends to vigorously challenge the outcome through all available legal means, including possible post-trial motions and an appeal.

Takeda has been partnering with major pharmaceutical manufacturers around the world to promote its drugs to global markets, according to a Chinese marketing expert in the medicine industry.

Takeda once partnered with Pfizer (China) Pharmaceutical Limited to promote "Actos" on the Chinese market, but that partnership has ended.

The company increased its investments in diabetes drugs and reached a deal in 2013 with the Chinese branch of Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Paris, to promote Nesina, the company's new DPP-4 inhibitor pills for type 2 diabetes.

Analysts said Takeda's case may have negative effects on its business in the Chinese market, but the spin-off impacts of the lawsuit will depend on the Chinese government's attitude toward the case.