Miss. Woman Files Lipitor Lawsuit against Pfizer

A Mississippi woman has filed a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer Inc. after she was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, alleging that the cholesterol medication is the cause.

Mary Magee was prescribed Lipitor in January 2003 to lower her cholesterol and as a preventative treatment against developing heart disease.

Aside from her high levels low-density lipoprotein, Magee claims that she was otherwise “very healthy.” She says that she agreed to take Lipitor “in keeping with her healthy and proactive lifestyle … in an effort to reduce her risk of developing heart disease,” because that is what Pfizer claims Lipitor does.

However, in spite of Magee’s healthy weight and diet, she was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes in December 2010. She stopped taking Lipitor in January 2012. Magee alleges that Pfizer failed to warn its patients that diabetes was a potential Lipitor side effect.

“As a result, for the rest of her life she must undergo regular testing of her blood glucose levels, adhere to a restrictive diabetic diet, and take medication to control diabetes,” the Lipitor lawsuit states. “Due to her diabetes, she is now at markedly increased risk of heart disease, blindness, neuropathy, and kidney disease.”

Until February 2012, Pfizer had not issued any warnings concerning the effects Lipitor had on changes in blood sugar levels.

Lipitor belongs to a class of drugs known as statins that were developed in the mid-1990s by Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research, a division of the Warner-Lambert Company.

Warner-Lambert made a co-marketing agreement with Pfizer regarding Lipitor not long after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug to be marketed in the United States. In the summer of 2000, Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert, including all rights to Lipitor.

“Despite its knowledge of date indicating that Lipitor use is causally 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 such as Plaintiff throughout the United States, including this judicial district,” the Lipitor lawsuit says.

According to the Lipitor lawsuit, Pfizer began changing the Lipitor labels in August 2011 after a review was released by the FDA’s Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products.

Pfizer then added a warning to the Lipitor labels in early 2012 saying that the class of drugs that Lipitor belonged was linked to an increase in glucose levels. However, according to the Lipitor lawsuit, “Lipitor’s label continues to fail to warn customers of the serious risk of developing type 2 diabetes per se when using Lipitor.”

Magee is charging Pfizer with liability in its failure to warn, negligence, breach of implied warranty, fraud, constructive fraud, and unjust enrichment. She is asking for punitive damages, general damages, compensatory damages, consequential damages as well as medical expenses.

The Lipitor diabetes lawsuit is Mary Magee v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 3:13-cv-00754-WHB-RHW, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

If you or someone you know was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes after taking Lipitor, legal options may be available to you. Learn more and get a free legal consultation regarding a claim’s eligibility at the Lipitor Diabetes Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. Experienced legal professionals have access to medical experts to assess whether or not Lipitor played a role in your development of type-2 diabetes, so act now.