A status conference regarding thousands of Lipitor lawsuits housed in the larger Lipitor MDL (multidistrict litigation) has been scheduled for Jan. 22 of this year. At this Lipitor lawsuit status conference, the participating parties will discuss Lipitor type-2 diabetes side effects and other alleged complications related to Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering medication.

When this Lipitor MDL conference was first announced on Dec. 15, 2014, an updated case list of all Lipitor lawsuits pending in South Carolina federal court was published. According to the list, an estimated total of 1,478 Lipitor lawsuits are currently awaiting trial. As of Jan. 1, that estimate has held steady, though plaintiffs’ legal representatives have stated that it is still possible that more cases may be added in the future.

The majority of the nearly 1,500 Lipitor lawsuits awaiting trial in this MDL, which will be discussed during the January conference, allege that the popular statin drug designed to lower a patient’s cholesterol has caused many individuals to develop type-2 diabetes. Many of these same plaintiffs further allege that Pfizer, the manufacturer of Lipitor, is liable to consumers for failing to adequately warn Lipitor users and the medical community of possible Lipitor side effects, including the risk of type-2 diabetes.

The majority of these Lipitor type-2 diabetes lawsuits were filed in federal court after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2012 federal mandate requiring Pfizer to change Lipitor’s label to include a warning about the risk of type-2 diabetes.

Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes

Lipitor medical reports have suggested that the group of consumers most at risk of developing type-2 diabetes after taking the Pfizer drug are women. To date, over 4,000 women have reported type-2 diabetes side effects allegedly related to their Lipitor treatment. Of the reported Lipitor cases, the common claim is that Lipitor users developed type-2 diabetes anywhere from a few months to a few years after beginning their Lipitor drug regimen.

As a result of the influx of negative Lipitor consumer reports and a Lipitor type-2 diabetes study published in JAMA, the FDA published a public health notice in August 2011, requiring Pfizer to include new type-2 diabetes risk information in their marketing, advertising, and labeling of the cholesterol-managing drug. In 2012, the FDA followed this up with a general mandate to all statin manufacturers to include a warning risk of type-2 diabetes.

Lipitor Side Effects

Many women have reported experiencing a number of other disconcerting side effects after using Lipitor, including :

• Muscle problems, pain, or weakness
• Fever and tiredness
• Liver problems
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Upset stomach
• Joint pain
• Rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of muscle fibers)
• Myopathy (muscular weakness)

Lipitor MDL

During February 2012, Pfizer finally complied with the FDA order and updated Lipitor’s drug and product labels to include a type-2 diabetes risk warning. While this action benefits current and future Lipitor consumers, it does not offer much consolation to those women who claim they developed Lipitor type-2 diabetes before 2012.

The Lipitor MDL is In re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin) Litigation, MDL No. 2502, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.