A Florida woman has filed a product liability lawsuit alleging that pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer Inc., failed to provide adequate warnings for side effects associated with their cholesterol lowering drug, Lipitor.

Plaintiff Eulalia F. claims that she was prescribed Lipitor in October 2004 to lower her high cholesterol for a period of approximately six years. In October 2006, Eulalia was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, allegedly as a result of taking the medication.

According to the Lipitor diabetes lawsuit, Pfizer knew or should have known about the potential link between Lipitor and type-2 diabetes, yet it allegedly withheld information from consumers and the medical community while promoting an aggressive marketing campaign for the medication.

Eulalia’s Lipitor lawsuit further alleges Pfizer promoted the drug as safe and effective, despite knowing that it could elevate blood sugar levels and cause type-2 diabetes.

This Lipitor lawsuit is included in the thousands of consolidated lawsuits, known as a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, that all assert similar allegations against Pfizer over Lipitor side effects.

What is Lipitor?

Lipitor, sold generically as atorvastatin, was introduced in 1996 by Warner-Lambert Company, which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer.

The drug is approved to be used in conjunction with diet and exercise to lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides, which purportedly reduces the likelihood for heart attack, stroke, and related problems in patients who have heart disease or who are at risk for heart disease.

Lipitor is known as a statin medication, and works by preventing an enzyme in the liver from creating LDL cholesterol. Before it lost patent protection in 2011, Lipitor was the best-selling drug in history, and had been used by millions of people.

Lipitor and Type-2 Diabetes

In February 2012, the FDA ordered Pfizer to add new warnings to its label regarding a possible association with an increased risk of type-2 diabetes.

At the time, the agency alerted the public that new information would be added to the label of Lipitor and other statins regarding a “small increased risk of increased blood sugar levels and of being diagnosed with type-2 diabetes diabetes mellitus.”

The month prior, the Archives of Internal Medicine had published a study that indicated post-menopausal women who took drugs like Lipitor faced “a 48 percent increased risk of diabetes.”

A little over a year later, in May 2013, a study appearing in the British Medical Journal found that people taking Lipitor had a 22 percent higher risk of new-onset diabetes.

Because of the possible connection between Lipitor and diabetes, patients taking this drug should report any unusual symptoms to their doctor immediately, including:

• Increased thirst or hunger
• Increased  urination
• Unexplained weight loss
• Unexplained fatigue
• Blurry vision
• Frequent infections or wounds that won’t heal
• Areas of darkened skin

Lipitor Lawsuits

Pfizer currently faces more than 2,000 Lipitor type-2 diabetes lawsuits centralized in a federal MDL in a South Carolina federal court. The first Lipitor MDL bellwether trial is set for the fall.

The Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuit is filed within the larger Lipitor MDL, In Re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2:14-mn-02502-RMG, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina Charleston Division.