A Minnesota union health and welfare benefit fund and consumers in four states have filed a federal racketeering class action lawsuit against Takeda Pharmaceutical Company—Japan’s largest drug company and the maker of the diabetes drug Actos—and pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Company. Experts believe this class action could be worth billions in damages.
The Actos RICO class action lawsuit claims that Takeda and Eli Lilly concealed the risk that Actos [pioglitazone] causes bladder cancer to ensure the continued profitability of Actos throughout the United States. Also named as a defendant in the Actos RICO class action lawsuit is Takeda’s U.S. subsidiary, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., a Delaware company. Eli Lilly & Co., based in Indianapolis, Indiana, was also named in the Actos RICO class action lawsuit.
June 16, 2025: The Ninth Circuit affirmed a class certification order in Painters & Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund v. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. This marks a watershed moment in a first-of-its-kind class action that our class action attorneys have been litigating for roughly 11 years.
Painters is the first non-settlement national RICO class action certified against a Big Pharma, and legal experts estimate the total damages in the case could exceed $7 billion.
“We are eager to finally get this case to trial," said R. Brent Wisner, Wisner Baum’s managing partner and national class counsel.
“The evidence in this case is clear: Takeda and Lilly deceived the class into purchasing billions of dollars of Actos, actions that violated civil RICO, and exposed millions of diabetics to a carcinogen without their consent or knowledge. It's been a long and hard-fought journey, but the magnitude of this precedent and the potential impact on all pharmaceutical manufacturers was worth it. It seems perseverance is the number one determinant of success in the end. We are ready to tell this story to a jury and recoup the billions Takeda and Lilly pilfered from our clients and all those similarly situated."
Wisner Baum class action attorneys hope to bring the case to trial in 2026.
May 23, 2023: The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California unsealed an order certifying the class action against Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and Eli Lilly and Company. In his order, Judge John W. Holcomb appointed class action attorneys R. Brent Wisner and Michael L. Baum of Wisner Baum, LLP and Christopher L. Coffin of Pendley, Baudin & Coffin, LLP as national class counsel. Per the order, the class consists of third-party payers in the U.S. that paid for Actos prescriptions between July 1, 1999 and September 17, 2010.
Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. (Case No. 2:17-cv-07223-JWH-AS) is the first non-settlement national RICO class action lawsuit certified against a major pharmaceutical company. Under the civil RICO statute, which can award plaintiffs "treble damages,” the case could reach $7 billion or more.
"We appreciate the Court's hard work in drafting such a detailed and careful order," said class action attorney, R. Brent Wisner. "It's a thoughtful order—one we have come to expect from Judge Holcomb. While this is the first pharmaceutical class to ever be certified under the federal civil RICO statute, the result should come as no surprise. It is rooted in well-established Ninth Circuit precedent and, frankly, commonsense. We will now be able to take this case to trial on behalf of a national class. It is about time we held Takeda and Lilly accountable for exposing millions of Americans to a carcinogen without their consent. Fraud should not pay—the use of civil RICO will help ensure that doesn't happen here. And, with a national class, the full scope of their corporate malfeasance will be tried together in one case."
Plaintiffs named in the Actos bladder cancer lawsuit are the Minnesota-based Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund, Annie M. Snyder, a California consumer, Rickey D. Rose, a Missouri consumer, John Cardarelli, a New Jersey consumer, Marlyon K. Buckner, a Florida consumer, and Sylvie Bigord, a Massachusetts consumer.
The plaintiffs claim that the defendants engaged in a decade-long scheme to conceal the significant bladder cancer risks associated with Actos. As a result of the alleged deception, consumers, prescribers, and third-party payers were denied the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions regarding the purchase and/or reimbursement of Actos prescriptions.
The Actos RICO class action lawsuit allegations against Takeda and Eli Lilly include the following:
Manufactured and distributed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Actos [pioglitazone] is a prescription drug used to treat type-2 diabetes. Introduced to the North American market in 1999, Takeda made billions of dollars every year in Actos sales. In 2010 alone, Actos brought in roughly $5 billion in sales.
But even before Actos went to market, safety advocates were concerned about the drug’s link to bladder cancer. Studies had shown that Actos was not only linked to bladder cancer, but other serious side effects as well, including heart failure, blindness and bone fractures. In spite of these alarming studies, patients were not made aware of the dangers surrounding Actos—consumers were simply told that the type-2 diabetes drug was their best option to combat the dangers of diabetes.
During the Actos MDL proceedings in Louisiana, it was reported that Takeda had allegedly been aware of the link between Actos and bladder cancer since 2001, but did nothing to warn the general public about the danger. The FDA issued a safety alert in June of 2011, warning that long term Actos consumers were at an increased risk for developing bladder cancer. The FDA further advised doctors to stop filling Actos prescriptions for patients who had previously been diagnosed with bladder cancer.
The Actos bladder cancer MDL was filed before U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Doherty in the Western District of Louisiana, where last year the jury in a federal bellwether Actos bladder cancer trial ordered Takeda and Eli Lilly to pay $1.5 million to the defendant and $9 billion (later reduced to $38.6 million) in punitive damages. Takeda recently agreed to settle thousands of Actos lawsuits for $2.37 billion. Plaintiffs in the suits claim that Actos gave them bladder cancer.
Rather than filing individual health care fraud lawsuits against Takeda and Eli Lilly, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a federal law designed to combat organized crime.
The plaintiffs proposed an Actos RICO class action lawsuit consisting of all consumers and entities in the United States and its territories who took Actos between 1999 and the present. In addition, the plaintiffs propose five state Consumer Classes in California, Missouri, New Jersey, Florida, and Massachusetts, for consumers who paid or incurred costs of Actos in those states over the same time period.
According to the Actos RICO class action lawsuit, Takeda and Eli Lilly allegedly engaged in “a pattern of racketeering activity” that included acts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and the “use of interstate facilities to conduct unlawful activity.” Racketeering is broadly defined as a “pattern of illegal activity carried out as part of an enterprise that is owned or controlled by those engaged in the illegal activity.”
RICO violations are not just limited to organized crime syndicates—they can also focus on a corporation. Those who have been injured by a RICO violation can bring a civil suit. If they win, the parties injured as a result of a RICO violation receive treble damages (triple the amount of actual/compensatory damages). In order for a RICO claim to be successful, plaintiff(s) must demonstrate:
"Wisner Baum gave exceptional attention to all aspects of the case, detailed inquiry, and tenacious overview of all the information submitted. The paralegals are efficient and diligent. I was completely surprised to find an empathic personal message to take care of my own health during the challenging time of being a full-time caretaker.*"
In May of 2019, the jury in the case of Pilliod et al. v, Monsanto Company ordered the agrochemical giant to pay $2.055 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, a Bay Area couple in their 70s. R. Brent Wisner served as co-lead trial attorney for the Pilliods, delivering the opening and closing statements and cross-examining several of Monsanto’s experts. Wisner Baum managing shareholder, Michael Baum and attorney Pedram Esfandiary also served on the trial team in the Pilliod case.
The judge later reduced their award to $87M. Monsanto appealed the Pilliod’s verdict which the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District denied on August 9, 2021. Monsanto then requested the California Supreme Court review the appeal’s court decision, which the court denied on Nov. 17, 2021. Monsanto (Bayer) then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court which SCOTUS denied on June 27, 2022, allowing the final judgment of $87M to remain intact.
$289.2 million jury verdict in Monsanto Roundup trial
Wisner Baum co-represented Dewayne “Lee” Johnson in the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to proceed to trial. On Aug. 10, 2018, a San Francisco jury ordered Monsanto to pay $39.25 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages to Mr. Johnson, a former groundskeeper who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s herbicides caused him to develop terminal non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Months after the jury verdict, the judge overseeing the trial reduced the punitive damages to $39.25 million. Mr. Johnson decided to accept the remittitur, bringing the adjusted amount awarded to Mr. Johnson $78.5 million.
Monsanto (Bayer) appealed the verdict and Johnson cross appealed. On July 20, 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against Monsanto but reduced Mr. Johnson’s award to $20.5 million. The company chose not to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the litigation.
In 2016, Wisner Baum attorney Timothy A. Loranger and six other attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Management Committee were able to secure a $265 million settlement for victims of the 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment in Philadelphia, one of the largest in the U.S. for 2016.
