A Pennsylvania woman is among the latest to file a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer. Plaintiff Patricia Cole alleges Lipitor caused her to develop type-2 diabetes.

Lipitor belongs to a family of drugs called statins. Statins are designed to alter the amount of LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, the body produces. Cholesterol is a naturally-occurring substance. The human body needs some cholesterol to survive. However, if a person has excessive levels of cholesterol, particularly LDL cholesterol, the substance can form plaque on the walls of blood vessels. This plaque narrows blood vessels and makes them more rigid. This, in turn, makes the heart work harder and increases blood pressure, causing other health problems.

While diet contributes to a person’s LDL levels, the human body produces some LDL cholesterol on its own. Statins like Lipitor are designed to interfere with the production of LDL cholesterol. However, they have been linked to an increased risk of serious side effects.

According to Cole’s Lipitor lawsuit, her physician prescribed Lipitor to help control her LDL levels in May 2005. She continued to take Lipitor through January 2007. In June 2006, Cole was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. Her Lipitor lawsuit — and thousands of similar lawsuits — allege that research studies and post-market surveillance indicate there is an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes associated with the drug. Her Lipitor diabetes lawsuit notes that she would not have used the drug had she been aware of this risk.

Additionally, Cole’s Lipitor lawsuit alleges that not only was Pfizer aware (or reasonably should have been aware) of the risk of diabetes, but that the company actively promoted the drug in spite of the risks. To support this allegation, the Pfizer lawsuit notes that when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) mandated changes to Lipitor’s label to reflect the increased risk of diabetes, Pfizer included “jargon” about increased glucose levels and doesn’t actually use the word “diabetes.”

The Lipitor lawsuits against Pfizer have taken the form of a multidistrict litigation, or MDL. MDLs are a type of group lawsuit, similar to a class action lawsuit. In both MDLs and class action lawsuits, a group of plaintiffs allege that they have suffered similar harm at the hands of the same defendant. Group actions like class action lawsuits and MDLs are designed to streamline the legal process by combining dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, of individual lawsuits into a single legal action. The main difference between a class action lawsuit and an MDL is that class action lawsuits start out as group lawsuits while MDLs start as individual lawsuits (like Cole’s) which are later coordinated into a single legal action. Both class action lawsuits and MDLs are designed to help streamline the legal system.

The Lipitor lawsuit is Patricia Cole v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-01620-RMG, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The larger Lipitor MDL In re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.