After several postponements, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) rescheduled hearings involving ongoing litigation against the manufacturers of Lipitor, involving allegations that the popular cholesterol drug causes diabetes. The hearings were held Feb. 6 in New Orleans and concerned arguments for the creation of a centralized MDL for all Lipitor diabetes lawsuits filed across the country.

Multidistrict litigation (MDL) is a type of group lawsuit, similar to a class action lawsuit. In an MDL, a group of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered similar harm from a single defendant. Joining the proposed Lipitor MDL could potentially help women who developed type-2 diabetes, allegedly from Lipitor, to quickly and effectively seek compensation and resolution.

Lipitor Lawsuits Say the Drug Caused Diabetes

The manufacturers of Lipitor are currently facing more than 100 lawsuits that allege Lipitor caused the plaintiffs to develop type-2 diabetes. These plaintiffs are all women who say Pfizer Inc. never warned them, or their physicians, that Lipitor can increase the risk of developing diabetes, especially in post-menopausal women.

Lipitor belongs to a class of drugs called statins. These drugs lower the levels of bad cholesterol levels in the patient’s blood by interfering with the body’s ability to produce cholesterol. Since blood cholesterol levels are a function of diet and a patient’s own physiology, Lipitor addresses one of the two main causes of high cholesterol.

However, evidence has emerged that Lipitor can cause type-2 diabetes. Type-2 diabetes is a chronic illness wherein the patient loses the ability to regulate the amount of glucose (a simple sugar) in their blood. Uncontrolled, this leads to tissue and cellular damage, which can manifest as blindness, organ damage, and necrosis/gangrene which can require the amputation of fingers, toes and even entire limbs. Various research studies have indicated that postmenopausal women have the greatest risk of developing type-2 diabetes in response to Lipitor.

Lipitor MDL Proposed to Expedite Litigation

The Feb. 6 hearing was held to consider various motions by plaintiffs to consolidate existing lawsuits over the alleged Lipitor-diabetes link. Since close to 100 Lipitor diabetes lawsuits have been filed against Pfizer, the JPML set out to decide how to consolidate the existing litigation. The panel was originally scheduled for Jan. 30, 2014, but was delayed due to incremental weather.

Winter Storm Leon was an uncharacteristically intense and cold winter storm in late January, which caused snowy and icy conditions across a large portion of the southern United States. These conditions led to travel delays which in turn delayed the JPML’s hearing on the Lipitor MDL.

An earlier attempt to centralize the various lawsuits into a single Liptior MDL was denied by the JPML. In July 2013, the JPML ruled that  there weren’t enough Lipitor lawsuits to warrant consolidation into a single MDL. Only several dozen cases had been filed at that time. However, dozens more cases have been filed since the summer.

The proposed Lipitor MDL would be called In Re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2459, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.