Takeda Pharmaceutical said it would contest $6 billion in punitive damages imposed by a US federal jury in a case alleging Japan's largest drugmaker had concealed cancer risks associated with its Actos diabetes drug.

Eli Lilly, Takeda's co-defendant in the case, was ordered to pay $3 billion in punitive damages.

“We intend to vigorously challenge this outcome through all available legal means, including possible post-trial motions and an appeal,” said Kenneth Greisman, general counsel of Takeda Pharmaceutical USA.

Lilly, which co-promoted Actos from 1999 to 2006, said it will be indemnified by Takeda for its losses and expenses around the litigation based on the terms of its agreement with Takeda. It plans to also challenge the outcome of the case.

Takeda’s shares fell as much as 8.8 per cent to an eight-month low in Tokyo trading today after the verdict. The stock ended 5.2 per cent lower at 4,572 yen. Lilly shares fell 0.2 per cent, or 12 US cents per share, to $58.50 per share in New York Stock Exchange trading.

The massive award was met with “stunned silence” in the packed Lafayette, Louisiana, courtroom, said plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Lanier.

The $9 billion in punitive damages awarded exceeds the $5 billion penalty that a jury in Alaska imposed on Exxon Mobil for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

The US Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Exxon Valdez award had been "excessive". The company was ultimately ordered to pay $500 million. That and other rulings have been read as limiting punitive damages in federal cases.

Punitive damages are meant to discourage other companies from bad conduct. Compensatory damages are meant to pay victims for their actual losses.

In the latest Actos case, the jury also ordered the payment of $1.475 million in compensatory damages in the suit.
– (Reuters)