Kansas resident Janie Leonard filed a Lipitor diabetes lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. after discovering that she had developed type-2 diabetes, which she alleges occurred from her use of the statin drug Lipitor.

Leonard was a faithful user of Lipitor until she stopped taking the cholesterol medication on or around June 2010. She had been prescribed Lipitor by her primary care physician to reduce her risk for heart disease.In April 2010, Leonard was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.

According to her Lipitor diabetes lawsuit, Leonard’s new health condition will require her to “undergo regular testing of her blood glucose levels, adhere to a restrictive diabetic diet, and take medication to control her diabetes. Due to her diabetes, she is now at markedly increased risk of heart disease, blindness, neuropathy, and kidney disease.”

Because she was not at risk of developing diabetes before she began to take Lipitor, and due to the rising number of medical reports and Lipitor lawsuits linking Pfizer’s statin drug with an increased risk for type-2 diabetes, Leonard alleges that her diabetic condition was directly caused by her use of Lipitor.

When Leonard began taking Lipitor, Pfizer had not included the warning in its advertisements and medical labeling about the increased risk of type-2 diabetes to Lipitor consumers. Leonard claims that had she known of the risk of Lipitor diabetes, she would not have used the medication and instead would have used an alternative statin drug.

Leonard and her husband are seeking monetary compensation from Pfizer Inc. in the form of general damages, medical and hospital expenses, refund for purchased Lipitor items, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.

Type-2 Diabetes and Lipitor Users

Leonard is not the only woman seeking who has filed a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer after being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. Many female Lipitor consumers are joining Lipitor class action lawsuits alleging that Pfizer did not do an adequate job of informing their consumers of the Lipitor diabetes risk.

In August 2011, a year after Leonard was diagnosed as diabetic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered Pfizer Inc. to update their marketing labels and advertisements for Lipitor after several medical reports demonstrated a causal link Lipitor and development of type-2 diabetes in women. Pfizer eventually complied with the FDA mandate and in February 2012, altered all Lipitor ads and labels to reflect the health risk warning.

Lipitor Side Effects

Many women have reported various side effects connected with their use of Lipitor, which include:

• Muscle problems, pain, or weakness
• Fever and tiredness
• Liver problems
• Nausea
• Diarrhea
• Upset stomach
• Joint pain
• Rhabdomyolysis
• Myopathy