The judge overseeing the Lipitor lawsuits consolidated in multidistrict litigation (MDL) has outlined the next steps for the bellwether cases, which are expected to begin in late summer in 2015. This is a critical step in the litigation over the alleged problems with Lipitor.

Lipitor is a type of drug called a statin. Statins are designed to help patients with high blood cholesterol levels. Humans need cholesterol to survive. However, when there is too much cholesterol, particularly LDL or “bad” cholesterol, it can form a coating on the inside of a person’s blood vessels. This can harden the walls of arteries and cause heart problems, as the organ is forced to work harder to pump blood through the narrower, more rigid vessels. Cholesterol is partially controlled by diet, and partly controlled through a person’s own body. So even when a patient eats a healthy diet and exercises regularly, they can still have excessive cholesterol levels.

Drugs like statins are designed to correct this. However, Lipitor and other statins have been linked to potentially serious side effects. Several epidemiological studies have found a link between an increased risk of type-2 diabetes and drugs like Lipitor, and the link appears more pronounced in post-menopausal women.

Diabetes is a condition wherein patients lose the ability to control the level of sugar in their blood. This can allow the blood sugar to build to toxic levels and cause damage to the body.

The litigation over the alleged Lipitor diabetes connection has taken the form of an MDL. MDLs are a type of group litigation. In some ways they are similar to class action lawsuits. In both MDLs and class action lawsuits, a group of people allege that they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant.

Group lawsuits like class action lawsuits and MDLs are designed to help streamline the legal system by combining dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual suits into a single legal process. Currently, the Lipitor mass tort has more than 500 individual Lipitor diabetes lawsuits added to it. It was formed in Febuary of 2014. Unlike class action lawsuits, the individual lawsuits that make up MDLs retain a degree of autonomy.

The bellwether cases will be the first Lipitor lawsuits tried within the MDL. The judge overseeing the MDL issued a case management order on May 16, outlining the discovery process for the bellwether cases. Discovery is a legal term for collecting and presenting evidence related to a case. This case management order is outlining the evidence that will be collected and presented to be used at the trial.

The Lipitor MDL is In re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation (No II), MDL No. 2502, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.