An Oklahoma couple have filed a Lipitor lawsuit alleging that the heart disease drug causes type-2 diabetes in post-menopausal women.

Plaintiffs Palma Talley-Lesko and Edward Lesko are joining the Lipitor MDL and suing Pfizer Inc. for the injuries Talley-Lesko allegedly suffered — primarily that she developed type-2 diabetes as a direct result of ingesting Lipitor.

Talley-Lesko explains in her Lipitor diabetes lawsuit that she was prescribed and started taking Lipitor on or before November 1998, at the recommendation of her physician. She was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes in June 2008, but not knowing of the connection between the two, she continued taking Lipitor until February 2012.

Talley-Lesko joined the Lipitor MDL when she filed the Lipitor lawsuit on Sept. 16. She alleges that she “suffered severe and permanent physical and emotional injuries including, but not limited to, the development of type-2 diabetes as a result of her ingestion of the prescription drug Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) … [and] as a direct, proximate and foreseeable result of Defendants actions or inactions, Plaintiff suffered grievous bodily injury and consequently economic and other losses, including but not limited to pain and suffering, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life.”

Talley-Lesko is suing Pfizer and demanding a jury trial. The claims in her Lipitor lawsuit include negligence, negligent misrepresentation and design, design defect, failure to warn, breach of express and implied warranties, fraud and misrepresentation, loss of consortium and unjust enrichment.

The Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes Lawsuit is Palma J. Talley-Lesko and Edward P. Lesko Junior v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-3663-RMG, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division. It falls under the current MDL, In Re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502, in the same federal court.

Treating Cholesterol with Statins

Created by Pfizer, and approved almost 20 years ago, Lipitor is a statin drug meant to treat high cholesterol in patients. While needed by the body, unhealthy levels of cholesterol can cause various health complications.

Lipitor functions by preventing the body from absorbing bad cholesterol (HMG-CoA reductase, a liver enzyme that helps produce LDL), and preventing arteriosclerosis. Lipitor also helps increase levels of good cholesterol (high-density lipoproteins, or HDL), which helps lower the risk of heart attack.

Statins are the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States, and Lipitor is the best-selling of its class. Unfortunately, many patients are finding that the way Lipitor works in the body comes with adverse Lipitor side effects.

The concern of Lipitor type-2 diabetes became prominent in 2012, when Pfizer and the FDA announced that there was a slight chance of Lipitor changing the body’s blood sugar levels. Medical experts theorize that it may be how Lipitor works with the metabolic processes of the body that causes this adverse reaction.

The FDA issued a statement, announcing changes that would be made to the drug’s label to reflect the risk, but many plaintiffs say current warning labels are still insufficient.

Lack of warning is one of the biggest issues, and Lipitor patients continue to criticize the label for using medically ambiguous language — more specifically, Lipitor lawsuits allege that the warning label doesn’t actually mention type-2 diabetes, but simply that it could potentially impact the blood glucose levels.

With over 600 Lipitor lawsuits pending against Pfizer for Lipitor type-2 diabetes, the lawsuits were consolidated into the current multidistrict litigation (MDL) under U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel in the U.S. District Court for the District South Carolina, Charleston Division.