A husband and wife team have filed a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer Inc., alleging that their drug caused the development type-2 diabetes.

Cynthia Tinsley and John Tinsley filed the Lipitor lawsuit after Cynthia developed type-2 diabetes while taking the heart disease medication. According to the Lipitor lawsuit, Cynthia developed diabetes despite a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Lipitor is in a category of drugs called statins. Statins are designed to help address high levels of LDL or “bad” cholesterol in the blood. Human beings need a certain amount of cholesterol to survive. However, when a patient has excessive levels of cholesterol, particularly LDL cholesterol, it contributes to a condition called atherosclerosis, where arteries harden and narrow. This both forces the heart to work harder and make it easier for blood clots to block critical blood vessels, causing strokes, pulmonary embolisms, and heart attacks.

Since cholesterol levels are influenced by both diet and a person’s physiology, controlling diet alone may not correct high cholesterol. Drugs like Lipitor and other statins are designed to help control this side of high cholesterol. However, Lipitor has been linked to an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes in postmarket studies. Postmenopausal females have been observed to have the highest increased risk.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder wherein patients lose the ability to control their blood sugar levels.

The Tinsleys’ Lipitor lawsuit joins several others making similar claims. So many Lipitor lawsuits have been filed that multidistrict litigation (MDL) has been proposed.

MDL or mass tort is a type of group litigation. In MDL, a number of individual lawsuits (like the Tinsleys’) are combined into a single legal procedure. MDLs are similar to a class action lawsuits in some ways. Both MDLs and class action lawsuits are designed to streamline the legal process by combining dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of individual lawsuits into a single legal proceeding.

However, he Lipitor MDL was rejected by the court system, but the mass tort could be formed at a later point. MDLs are more common for drug lawsuits than class action lawsuits, because individuals in drug lawsuits have injuries that vary too much.

The Lipitor lawsuit is Cynthia Tinsley, et al. v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-01610-RGM, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Pennsylvania. The proposed Lipitor MDL is In re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2459, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.