A Missouri woman has filed a Lipitor lawsuit alleging that pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer Inc., negligently misrepresented its prescription cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor and that the drug can cause users to develop type-2 diabetes.

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.

Among the most recent Lipitor diabetes lawsuits filed is that of Missouri resident and plaintiff Victoria D., which was filed in a South Carolina federal court.

Victoria claims that she was prescribed Lipitor in March 2006 to lower her high cholesterol for a period of approximately five years. In September 2010, Victoria was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, allegedly as a result of taking Lipitor.

Victoria’s Lipitor lawsuit alleges Pfizer was aware or should have been aware that there was a correlation between Lipitor and type-2 diabetes before it was made publically available in 1997.

Instead, the warning was only added to the product labeling in February 2012, after the FDA requested that a warning be provided for consumers and the medical community.

Victoria’s Lipitor lawsuit is included in the thousands of consolidated lawsuits, known as a multi district ligitation, or MDL, that pose similar allegations against Pfizer and Lipitor side effects.

Studies Show Lipitor Diabetes Risk

A number of studies have linked Lipitor and other cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins, to type-2 diabetes.

In 2013, researchers in Canada found that patients taking Lipitor had a 22 percent increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes compared to those taking another drug used to lower cholesterol.

Two years earlier, a study based on data from three large clinical trials also suggested that patients on a high-dose Lipitor regimen may have an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes, especially if they have other risk factors for the disease.

The trial included nearly 4,000 adults who did not have type-2 diabetes, but had a history of stroke. It is believed that women, including those with a healthy body mass index (BMI), are at the highest risk of developing type-2 diabetes from statin use.

FDA Warns Of Lipitor Diabetes Risk

Lipitor was first approved by the FDA for general use in 1996. Used to lower the body’s production of bad cholesterol in order to prevent cardiac disease and heart attack, Lipitor has been at the top of the list of best-selling drugs for many of its years on the market. Total sales of Lipitor in the past fifteen years have climbed over $130 billion.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Lipitor diabetes warning on Feb. 28, 2012. This official safety communication announced changes to the product’s safety label, including a new warning about the risk of high blood sugar for patients taking Lipitor and other statins.

The Lipitor FDA diabetes warning, which was accompanied by other cautions about the potential for memory loss and liver problems also being associated with patients taking Lipitor, is the result of a thorough review of clinical studies and medical literature on the subject.

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 bellwether trial in the Lipitor MDL is set for the fall.

The Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuit in the 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.