A woman from California has joined the Lipitor multidistrict litigation, claiming that Lipitor caused her to develop type-2 diabetes.

Plaintiff Beatrice H. says she took Lipitor from around Dec. 1998 to July 2004 and again from Nov. 2004 to March 2007. She was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes in January 2001.

Beatrice is now filing her Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer Inc, the maker of Lipitor. She attributes her development of type-2 diabetes to the Lipitor she took for several years.

Greenstone LLC, which produces a generic version of Lipitor, is the other named defendant in the multidistrict litigation. That company was not involved in the sale of Lipitor until January 2013, after Beatrice had stopped taking Lipitor.

Beatrice is specifically raising claims based on negligence, defective product design, failure to warn, breach of warranty, and fraud and misrepresentation. In addition to the claims listed in the master long form complaint, Beatrice is also claiming violation of California’s Civil Code and Business and Professions Code.

Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes MDL

Beatrice’s Lipitor lawsuit is part of a multidistrict litigation pending in federal court in South Carolina. This multidistrict litigation, or MDL, is a collection of over 2,000 individual Lipitor lawsuits from around the country. These claims have been consolidated into a single court for pretrial proceedings.

According to the MDL’s master long form complaint, the MDL plaintiffs are generally women who were diagnosed with type-2 diabetes after taking the drug Lipitor. Lipitor (generic atorvastatin calcium) is a drug most famous as a treatment for high cholesterol. Specifically, the FDA has approved Lipitor for many different cardiovascular uses such as reducing the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, and congestive heart failure, as well as for reducing levels of cholesterol in the blood. It has been on the market since it was originally FDA-approved in 1996.

Plaintiffs in the Lipitor MDL allege that Pfizer knew of an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes associated with Lipitor, a risk that is allegedly higher in women than in men. They say that Pfizer added a warning to the Lipitor label for sales in Japan that stated diabetes was a “clinically relevant adverse reaction” to Lipitor.

However, say plantiffs, the label for U.S. sales has not been so updated. Plaintiffs cite a 2011 request from the FDA to update the labeling for Lipitor. Pfizer complied with that request in February 2012, adding a warning that “[i]ncreases in HbA1c and fasting serum glucose levels have been reported with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, including Lipitor.” However, the plaintiffs say that to date the labeling for Lipitor does not adequately warn patients of the risk of developing Lipitor diabetes.

On top of the alleged failure to warn about the risk of Lipitor diabetes, plaintiffs say Pfizer has failed to demonstrate that Lipitor is clinically effective to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in women.

The Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuit MDL is In Re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 2:15-CV-03468 in MDL No. 2502, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.