After a jury awarded $6.5 million to a California man and his wife who alleged he developed bladder cancer after taking the diabetes drug Actos, attorney Sara Gourley filed a motion challenging the plaintiffs’ expert — and succeeded in getting the entire verdict thrown out.
“We’re taking those lessons and going on to the next case,” said Gourley, a partner in Sidley Austin’s Chicago office and lead counsel in the first Actos trial for defendants Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co. The defendants face more than 3,000 cases filed after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that taking Actos for more than a year could increase a patient’s risk of getting bladder cancer.
