A Lipitor lawsuit was filed against Pfizer Inc. and its subsidiary, Greenstone LLC, alleging that its prescription cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) causes type-2 diabetes in post-menopausal women.

Plaintiff Mary Garritty alleges in her Lipitor lawsuit that was added to the Lipitor multidistrict litigation (MDL) that 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 United States.

The Lipitor type-2 diabetes lawsuit accuses Pfizer of putting profits before patient safety and further alleges that:

• Pfizer promoted Lipitor as safe and effective, despite knowing that it could elevate blood sugar levels and/or cause type-2 diabetes.
• Lipitor’s label never carried a warning that it could cause changes in blood sugar levels and/or type-2 diabetes until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested a label change in February 2012.
• Even after the label change, Lipitor’s label still does not adequately warn patients about the risk of type-2 diabetes.
• Patients who developed diabetes due to Lipitor use now have to undergo regular testing of their blood glucose levels, adhere to a strict diets and take medication for the remainder of their lives and are at an increased risk for kidney disease, blindness, heart disease and other complications of diabetes.

How 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. In a healthy patient, the pancreas will release insulin in response to a meal to reduce blood sugar levels and allow glucose to enter the body’s cells, providing them with the energy needed to function.

Patients with type-2 diabetes, however, cannot produce enough insulin or cannot use the insulin well enough. As a result, glucose cannot enter the body’s cells and instead builds up in the blood, causing a spike in blood sugar levels. High levels of sugar in the blood can result in a number of serious health problems, including organ damage and heart attacks.

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 Warns About Increased Risk Of Type-2 Diabetes

In February 2012, the FDA released a statement on Lipitor and statins. 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, prescribing doctors should assess patients’ blood sugar levels after they have started treatment with Lipitor or another statin.

Lipitor Lawsuits

Pfizer currently faces more than 700 type-2 diabetes lawsuits over Lipitor diabetes allegations. A federal panel centralized the cases into a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2502) in the U.S. District of South Carolina, Charleston Division as the forum for this litigation. These cases have been assigned to the U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel for coordinated discovery and pretrial matters.

The Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes Lawsuit is Mary Garritty v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-03738-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. 2:14-cv-02502-RMG, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division.