As plaintiffs continue to add new lawsuits to the Lipitor multidistrict litigation, the court is preparing a select few cases for trial.

Lipitor, also known by its generic name atorvastatin, is used to treat high cholesterol and to lower the risk of cardiovascular complications in persons with certain other medical conditions. But the drug has also been suspected of causing causing type-2 diabetes in users, particularly women.

Lipitor is the fifth of a class of drugs called statins to be put on the market. After initial FDA approval in 1997, Lipitor became for a while the world’s top-selling drug, generating over $120 billion in sales for manufacturer Pfizer Inc. before its patent expired in 2011.

In February 2012 the FDA issued a Drug Safety Communication mandating changes to the labels of statin drugs such as Lipitor. Among other requirements, the communication added a warning about the risks of increased blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin.

With this warning, the FDA restated its belief that the cardiovascular benefits of statins outweighed these risks. However, the warning cited studies that found a relationship between Lipitor and later development of type 2 diabetes.

One study published in Archives of Internal Medicine (since renamed JAMA Internal Medicine) in January 2012 found an increased risk of developing diabetes mellitus in postmenopausal women who took statin medications like Lipitor.

Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuits

Following the FDA’s new warning requirement, patients who developed type 2 diabetes following Lipitor therapy began filing Lipitor lawsuits against Pfizer. In February 2014, the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation established the current Lipitor MDL and transferred the few existing Lipitor lawsuits into it.

Today the Lipitor MDL consists of over 2,000 individual lawsuits and is still growing – over 100 new Lipitor lawsuits were added in March alone.

Generally, the lawsuits in the Lipitor MDL allege that Pfizer failed to warn consumers and their physicians about the increased risk of diabetes associated with Lipitor. They accuse Pfizer of withholding vital information about the link between Lipitor and diabetes, information that would have led patients not to take Lipitor if they had been made aware of it.

Plaintiffs typically seek compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages and earning potential, and any other harm that they can show followed from their Lipitor diabetes.

According to a joint status report filed with the court on April 16, the parties in the Lipitor MDL are continuing exchange evidence and question each other’s witnesses before trial. The first trials are scheduled to begin in November.

These trials will address a small sample of Lipitor lawsuits to give both the parties and the court an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s claim and how the evidence will play out before a jury. These initial trials are typically referred to as “bellwether” trials.

Their outcome will not be binding on future Lipitor lawsuits but will more likely be used by other parties as a basis for settlement agreements.

The Lipitor MDL is pending before Judge Richard Gergel in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina under the title In re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL no. 2:14-mn-02502-RMG. Hundreds of other Lipitor diabetes lawsuits are also pending in various state courts.