Plaintiff Debra N. of Kansas filed a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of Lipitor.

Debra says she took Lipitor from August 2008 through January 2014. In October 2013, she was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. She argues that her diabetes was caused by Lipitor.

Debra’s Lipitor lawsuit is one of over 2,000 such cases now consolidated into a single multidistrict litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. The plaintiffs in this MDL are women who were diagnosed with type-2 diabetes after taking Lipitor to lower cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular disease.

Lipitor is one of a well-known class of drugs known as statins, which are used to reduce the levels of fatty substances in the blood. Lipitor has been on the market since the FDA initially approved it in 1996. It was initially sponsored for FDA approval by Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research and ultimately became an asset of Pfizer Inc. in 2000.

According to the MDL’s master long form complaint, Pfizer was under an obligation to monitor reports of adverse events associated with Lipitor, analyze any new information gained, and report any relevant information to the FDA.

Plaintiffs say Pfizer failed to fulfill that obligation. They say that proper monitoring and reporting on Pfizer’s part would have yielded evidence that Lipitor causes type-2 diabetes, and patients and their doctors would have been in a position to make informed decisions as to the risk of Lipitor diabetes.

Plaintiffs say Pfizer failed to properly warn patients and doctors about the possible link between Lipitor and type-2 diabetes. In February 2012, and at the FDA’s request, Pfizer added a warning to the Lipitor label stating that “[i]ncreases in HbA1c and fasting serum glucose levels have been reported with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, including Lipitor.”

However, the label does not specifically mention type-2 diabetes. Plaintiffs say the defendants’ efforts to warn about the risk of Lipitor diabetes remain inadequate.

The plaintiffs further allege that Lipitor has not been proven to be effective for preventing cardiovascular disease in women.

In addition to Pfizer itself, its subsidiary Greenstone LLC is also a named defendant for having marketed a generic version of Lipitor under its generic name atorvastatin calcium.

The harm that can follow from the alleged Lipitor diabetes is substantial. Plaintiffs cite information from the Centers for Disease Control that says diabetes can lead to a number of profoundly damaging secondary conditions including “heart disease, stroke, blindness, chronic kidney disease and amputations.”

The master complaint raises claims for negligence, negligent misrepresentation, negligent design, strict liability for defective product design, strict liability for failure to warn, breach of warranty, fraud and misrepresentation, and constructive fraud. Individual plaintiffs may also bring other claims on a case-by-case basis. Spouses of those with Lipitor diabetes may claim loss of consortium, and certain survivors of deceased victims may claim wrongful death.

The Lipitor MDL is In re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502 and Case no. 2:14-mn-02502-RMG. Debra’s individual Lipitor lawsuit is Case no. 2:15-cv-2942-RMG.