Preventative care is the best way to tackle future ailments—but many women aged 50 and older feel they were tricked by Pfizer Inc. into taking a drug to manage their cholesterol that caused them to develop another chronic illness.

Many people have seen an advertisement for Lipitor, a medication designed to help lower “bad” cholesterol and even help prevent cardiac events. Lipitor is one of Pfizer’s best-selling drugs, but a growing number of Lipitor lawsuits suggest that the drug can cause type-2 diabetes, especially in older women.

Mississippi resident Annette Cole is the latest woman to file a Lipitor lawsuit, filing her complaint on Dec. 3, 2013. Cole found out that the drug she was taking in hopes of preventing diseases may have actually been giving her a dangerous, lifelong illness.

Pfizer Hid Lipitor Diabetes Risk

Cole claims that “despite its knowledge of data indicating that Lipitor use is casually related to the development of type-2 diabetes and/or blood glucose levels diagnostic for type-2 diabetes, Pfizer promoted and marketed Lipitor as safe and effective for persons” like Cole.

She says she was never made aware of the real Lipitor risks since she claims that Pfizer purposefully hid those dangers.

On Aug. 11, 2011, the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration requested that Pfizer make labeling changes for Lipitor based upon the FDA’s comprehensive review of Lipitor side effects, including clinical trial data that linked Lipitor to the development of type-2 diabetes.

According to Cole’s Lipitor lawsuit, Pfizer didn’t comply with the FDA’s request to update the label changes until February 2012.

“Until the February 2012 change, Lipitor’s label never warned patients of any potential relation between changes in blood sugar levels and taking Lipitor,” the lawsuit states. The studies were available, but many physicians rely solely on the information provided by drug makers to make prescriptions—and drug makers like Pfizer are required by law to release any and all information related to drug complications.

Lipitor Users Unaware of Diabetes Risk

Cole began using Lipitor from January 2003 through 2012—well before the FDA intervened and made Pfizer update the warning labels. She claims that she was “very healthy prior to taking Lipitor. In keeping with her healthy and proactive lifestyle, (she) agreed to initiate Lipitor treatment in an effort to reduce her risk of developing cardiovascular disease.”

It’s a natural concern for any aging person, and Cole wanted to ensure that she would stay healthy and fit in this new chapter of her life.

Cole was diagnosed with diabetes in March 2006 but at the time didn’t know that it could have been caused by Lipitor. Thus, she continued taking Lipitor completely unaware that she may have been making her diabetes situation worse each day. It wasn’t for another six years that she found out about the Lipitor-diabetes connection and stopped taking the drug.

Now that Cole has developed type-2 diabetes, the condition is something she will have to live with, adapt to and manage for the rest of her life. She has to follow a strict diet, exercise regimen, and undergo regular testing to keep her blood sugar levels in check.

According to her Lipitor lawsuit, Cole has “endured pain and suffering, has suffered economic loss, including incurring significant expenses for medical care and treatment, and will continue to incur such expenses in the future.”

The economic and emotional damages she’s survived have been immense and will continue throughout her life. Cole says that had Pfizer properly disclosed the Lipitor risks, she would have never taken such a gamble or she would have had the knowledge to monitor her blood levels closely so she could take action before her type-2 diabetes became irreversible. She’s suing Pfizer for failure to warn, negligence, breach of warranty, fraud, constructive fraud, unjust enrichment and punitive damages.

The Lipitor diabetes lawsuit is Annette Cole v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:13-cv-00266-KS-MTP, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.