A South Carolina woman has joined the Lipitor MDL by filing a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. for the injuries she allegedly suffered after using Lipitor. Plaintiff Joyce H. claims as a direct result of using the popular cholesterol-lowering drug, Lipitor, she developed type-2 diabetes.

After being diagnosed with high cholesterol in January 2001, Joyce was prescribed Lipitor by her doctor.  She used this medication for 11 years and faithfully adhered to her Lipitor prescription dose with the hopes of a healthier lifestyle, according to her product liability lawsuit.

In January 2009 (during the time she was using Lipitor), Joyce was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.  She continued to take the drug for another three years after her diagnosis, unaware of the strong association statin drugs, like Lipitor, had with type-2 diabetes, the lawsuit claims.

Joyce ended her Lipitor use in January 2012, a month before the FDA made a public announcement regarding Lipitor’s alleged link to type-2 diabetes. She had chosen to cease using Lipitor, alleging it caused her to develop type-2 diabetes, permanently altering her life. Joyce must now take a variety of medications, undergo frequent blood tests, adhere to a strict diabetic diet, and see her physician regularly, according to her Lipitor lawsuit.

It is important to note that with her diabetic condition she is now more prone to heart disease, which is what Lipitor was supposed to prevent. Joyce’s life will never be same from and she will most likely have to contend with type-2 diabetes for the rest of her life. Joyce and her husband are filing a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer, for failing to warn her about Lipitor diabetes side effects.

According to the Lipitor lawsuit, at no point before or after her prescription started, did Pfizer warn Joyce or the medical community about the possibility of developing type-2 diabetes. The plaintiff’s Lipitor lawsuit states that Pfizer had the civil duty to warn her and other Lipitor patients of any and all Lipitor side effects, because they rely on the accuracy of the given information. Joyce insists that if she had known about the risk of Lipitor diabetes, then she never would have agreed to take the medication.

So for being allegedly responsible for manufacturing, selling, distributing, and marketing a dangerous drug, Joyce and her husband are suing Pfizer Inc. The charges include: negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

This Lipitor Lawsuit is filed in the ongoing Lipitor MDL where hundreds of lawsuits have been centralized: In Re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices And Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502, in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina, Charleston Division.

Overview of Lipitor Diabetes Complications

Lipitor has become one of the most commonly used drugs in America, treating millions of Americans with high cholesterol levels. Ideally, this medication would reduce the risk of heart disease and would encourage a healthier and more active lifestyle for the patient.

Lipitor is a member of the statin drug class, which works by preventing the liver from creating cholesterol-producing enzymes. By doing this, Lipitor prevents the body from absorbing bad cholesterol, or low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and encourages the production of good cholesterol, or high-density lipoproteins (HDLs).

Despite the drug’s overwhelming success, recent concerns of Lipitor type-2 diabetes plagues the drug’s reputation, as well as its manufacturer.

In February 2012, the FDA made a public safety announcement regarding Lipitor’s warning label, stating that it had to be updated to include the risk of type-2 diabetes. However, the updated Lipitor warning label Pfizer released merely warned patients of blood-sugar level changes and did not specifically state type-2 diabetes. Many Lipitor users have complained that this updated warning is intentionally misleading and ambiguous and intended to solely protect Lipitor’s market value.

Additionally, Pfizer is also facing scrutiny for aggressively selling Lipitor while allegedly ignoring a number of Lipitor type-2 diabetes studies that indicated the connection years earlier.

In February 2010, a study was published in the medical journal, The Lancet, which suggested that Lipitor could possibly cause type-2 diabetes to develop, after observing the occurrence in a number of subjects. For this and other Lipitor complications, Lipitor users across the country are taking legal action against Pfizer.