On 10/14/15 the NAM filed an amicus letter with the California Supreme Court in Cooper v. Takeda. This amicus follows the Fifth Circuit Court appeal dismissal of Takeda v. Allen pursuant to the broader settlement of the Actos litigation. There remained another Actos case still on appeal in California raising the question of how the Daubert test is to be applied in California courts following the California Supreme Court's adoption of Daubert in Sargon Enterprises Inc. v. University of Southern California.
Takeda succeeded at the trial court in having plaintiff’s specific causation expert excluded, but the California court of appeals reversed. Takeda is now seeking review from the California Supreme Court, and NAM’s amicus letter urges that review. NAM’s amicus letter argues two points. First, that California appellate courts are divided on whether, under Sargon, the question of admissibility is distinct from that of liability. Second, California courts are divided on whether epidemiology can be used to prove specific causation.