A West Virginia woman filed a Lipitor diabetes lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. alleging her use of the medicine caused her to develop type-2 diabetes.

Plaintiff Connie S. Belvins was initially prescribed Lipitor in April 2000 in order to reduce her cholesterol level. Higher cholesterol levels make patients more susceptible to heart disease and other bad health effects. Lipitor is the leading drug in treating this condition.

Lipitor has recently been linked to the development of type-2 diabetes in patients. At the time when Belvins was prescribed the drug, she was not told of this association nor were there any indications on Lipitor’s warning label, according to her Lipitor lawsuit.

Belvins stayed on Lipitor until January, even though she had been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes in 2006. She stayed on the medication because she was unaware that Lipitor had been linked to so many type-2 diabetes cases, according to her Lipitor complications lawsuit. When Belvins learned of the association through FDA warnings and televised announcements, she decided to file a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer.

Pfizer had the responsibility to warn Belvins and other Lipitor patients of all side effects of the medication, the Lipitor type-2 diabetes lawsuit alleges. Belvins stated that she never would have taken Lipitor if she had known that type-2 diabetes was a possible side effect.

Belvins’s Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer alleges negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

This Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuit is a part of In re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division.

Overview of Lipitor Complications

Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) is manufactured and sold by Pfizer as a cholesterol-treatment medication. It was approved by the FDA in 1996, and has since become the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history. This drug tops the sales charts in the United States yearly, and has become the premier statin drug to be prescribed by doctors. Statin drugs are manufactured to control cholesterol levels.

As well as being part of the statin drug family, Lipitor is also a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, which allows the drug to prevent the body from absorbing bad cholesterol. Lipitor has not only been known to lower bad cholesterol levels, but encourages the production of good cholesterol, leading to improved metabolic function. While the general public and medical experts agree that Lipitor is very efficient in its purpose, they are also concerned regarding the recent accusations regarding Lipitor and type-2 diabetes. Many patients allege Lipitor caused them to develop type-2 diabetes, and are angry they were not given any warning.

It is not known what may be causing this alleged reaction, but medical experts suspect it is linked to the patients’ metabolic processing. Despite the severity of this complication, it was not until 2012 that Pfizer included any warning of type-2 diabetes on Lipitor’s label. Even then, Lipitor’s warning label does not directly mention diabetes, but that the patient’s blood sugar levels may change. However, many patients have alleged this warning to be insufficient in numerous Lipitor lawsuits against Pfizer.