Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary, Greenstone LLC, have been hit with a Lipitor lawsit alleging that its cholesterol-lowering drug causes type-2 diabetes.

According to the Lipitor lawsuit, Pfizer knew or should have known about the potential link between Lipitor and type-2 diabetes, yet withheld information from consumers and the medical community while turning the medication into one of the most widely used brand name drugs in the country.

Plaintiff Kathy Moon of South Carolina filed the Lipitor diabetes lawsuit on Oct. 20 in a South Carolina federal court in September. Moon contends she was prescribed Lipitor in 2005 and again in 2011 to lower her high cholesterol. However, in 2013, Moon was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.

Moon’s Lipitor lawsuit alleges Pfizer knew or should have known that there was a connection between Lipitor and diabetes before it was made publicly available in 1997. Instead, the warning was only added to the product labeling in February 2012, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products requested that a warning be provided for consumers and the medical community.

The Lipitor lawsuit further accuses Pfizer Inc. of putting profits before patient safety and further alleges that even after the label change, Lipitor’s label still does not adequately warn patients about the risk of type-2 diabetes.

Is Lipitor Causing Type-2 Diabetes?

Several studies have uncovered a link between Lipitor and type-2 diabetes, a life-long condition that causes a patient to develop high blood sugar levels.

In the body, food is broken down into sugar (glucose), which travels through the bloodstream. Researchers suspect that Lipitor can inhibit the function of the pancreatic cells responsible for storing and releasing insulin, and may also decrease the body’s sensitivity to the hormone.

FDA Issues Warning About Increased Risk Of Type-2 Diabetes

In February 2012, the FDA released a statement on Lipitor and statins and their relationship to diabetes. The agency warned that patients taking these drugs may have an increased risk of developing high blood sugar levels and type-2 diabetes, and announced that changes will be made to the drugs’ labeling to reflect this concern.

According to an FDA spokesperson, doctors should assess patients’ blood sugar levels after they have started treatment with Lipitor or another statin to ward against the diabetes risk.

Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes Lawsuits

Pfizer currently faces more than 700 type-2 diabetes lawsuits over Lipitor. Recently, a request was filed to centralize the Lipitor diabetes lawsuits before one judge for coordinated handling as part of multidistrict litigation (MDL), and the request was granted.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized the Lipitor lawsuits into MDL, selecting the U.S. District Court for the District South Carolina, Charleston Division as the forum for this litigation.

These Lipitor diabetes lawsuits have been assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel for coordinated discovery and pretrial matters.

The Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes Lawsuit is Kathy A. Moon, et al. v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-3735-RMG, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division.

The Lipitor MDL is In Re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502, in the same federal court.