A woman from Baltimore has joined the mass legal action against the makers of Lipitor, alleging that the drug may cause type-2 diabetes.

In her Lipitor diabetes lawsuit, Plaintiff Denys M. states that she began taking Lipitor in November 2009 and continued to take the drug, by prescription, until August of 2014.

In August of 2014, her physicians diagnosed Denys with type-2 diabetes, a permanent condition where the body looses that ability to effectively regulate the amount of sugar in the blood, leading to a host of serious diabetes complications, including blindness; gangrene in the fingers, toes, hands, and feet; kidney problems; and heart disease.

Her Lipitor lawsuit alleges that Lipitor caused her diabetes, and that the manufactures of Lipitor did not do enough to protect Denys and the general public from this risk.

Denys was able to file a short form complaint to join the larger litigation against the makers of Lipitor. In fact, the short form of her Lipitor lawsuit is only five pages. This is because so many Lipitor lawsuits have been filed that the legal system has created a multidistrict litigation or MDL to deal with the influx of Lipitor lawsuits.

MDLs are process that coordinates similar lawsuits, allowing to the function almost like a Lipitor class action lawsuit in some ways. This process allows Lipitor lawsuits to reference the larger Lipitor Master Complaint, making it simpler to join the legal action over alleged cases of Lipitor diabetes.

Lipitor Lawsuit Allegations

In the Lipitor Master Complaint, it is alleged that Lipitor can cause type-2 diabetes, also called adult onset diabetes. The Lipitor MDL holds “had Defendants properly fulfilled their duties, their post-market surveillance would have provided evidence that Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium) causes Type 2 Diabetes.”

Drug makers are obligated in the US to perform post-market surveillance, or to maintain ongoing research about the safety of their drugs. The Lipitor lawsuit MDL holds that the makers of Lipitor did not perform adequate postmarket surveillance.

The Lipitor Master Complaint form also alleges that the various plaintiffs would not have used the drug if they were aware of the risk, but further claims that the makers of the drug did not adequately warn them.

Lipitor hit the market in 1996, but in August of 2011, a division of the FDA mandated changes to the drug’s labeling to include warning about the risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

But the Lipitor Master Complaint contends that when the makers of Lipitor complied, they couched the warning in technical jargon by saying “increases in HbA1c and fasting serum glucose levels have been reported with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, including Lipitor.”

The Lipitor lawsuit holds that despite this warning, which does not include the word “diabetes,” the label “…label continues to inadequately warn consumers of the serious risks of developing Type 2 Diabetes when using Lipitor.”

The Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuit is Civil Action No. 4577 filed within the larger Lipitor lawsuit MDL is In RE: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502, filed in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division.