Plaintiff Chuson M., a resident of Oklahoma, is suing Pfizer Inc., alleging she suffered injuries after ingesting Lipitor. She claims that in direct result of ingesting the medication, she developed the permanent injury of type-2 diabetes.

Chuson shares the woes of millions of Americans as a sufferer of high cholesterol and had been prescribed Lipitor by her doctor to treat and manage this condition. Ideally, this medication would have allowed Chuson to live a healthier and longer life with little risk of heart disease. In fact, Lipitor had worked so well that Chuson is continuing her Lipitor prescription, despite her recent development of Lipitor type-2 diabetes.

The plaintiff began taking Lipitor in January 2007, and has continued to take the Pfizer cholesterol-managing drug because of how successful it has been in Chuson’s life. However, while Lipitor has drastically lowered her cholesterol, medical experts warn that she may be at risk for heart disease regardless because of an unexpected Lipitor side effect. Chuson was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes in September 2012, and has since learned that it may have been caused by Liptior’s biological mechanism.

Due to the immense progress she has made in treating her cholesterol, Chuson and her physician believe it is in her best interest to continue Lipitor therapy. However, this medical decision does not prevent Chuson from filing a Liptor diabetes lawsuit against Pfizer for failing to protect her and other patients from Lipitor’s side effects. According to Chuson, she was not informed of the possibility of type-2 diabetes at the time she started Lipitor and only discovered this Lipitor complication through U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning announcements.

Additionally, there were no warnings or indications on the high cholesterol drug’s label to alert Chuson of the possibility of type-2 diabetes; additionally, the defendant had allegedly provided no relevant studies to consumers regarding the Lipitor type-2 diabetes link. Chuson’s lawyers state that Pfizer had the responsibility to warn their client and other Lipitor patients of this type-2 diabetes side effect, since Chuson and other consumers rely on the accuracy of the company-provided information. Chuson insists that she never would have taken Lipitor if she had known about the possibility of type-2 diabetes.

As the manufacturer, seller, distributor, and marketer of Lipitor, Chuson is suing Pfizer in this Lipitor lawsuit and has brought several charges against the pharmaceutical giant. The charges include: negligence, false advertising, concealing information, and misrepresenting a product.

This Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes Lawsuit is Case No. 2:14-cv-04785-RMG and is housed in the larger Lipitor MDL known as In Re: Lipitor (Atorvastatin Calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502, in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina, Charleston Division.

Overview of Lipitor Complications

For over a decade, Lipitor has been the go-to medication for cholesterol management purposes and has been met with wide success and reception within the medical community. Arguably, Lipitor has been Pfizer’s most successful venture, as it was declared the best-selling drug in pharmaceutical history and had garnered over $7 billion for Pfizer in 2011 alone. Currently, it remains one of the most popularly prescribed medications on the market and is still considered a reliable treatment for patients at risk for heart disease. Unfortunately, recent reports allege Lipitor has the ability to cause type-2 diabetes, and the drug has been at the center of legal scrutiny since 2012.

Lipitor is a part of the popular drug family known as statins, which work by lowering the bad cholesterol level absorption in the blood while encouraging the production of good cholesterol production. Medical experts explain that this process effects the body’s natural insulin production in the pancreas, increasing a patient’s risk of developing type-2 diabetes.

Lipitor type-2 diabetes concerns first arose in 2012, when the FDA required all statin labels to be updated to include an indication of type-2 diabetes. However, medical experts and patients have complained that even the updated label does not contain a clear warning of type-2 diabetes, but rather a small note of possible changes in the patient’s blood-sugar levels. This can be confusing to patients who do not understand the connection between type-2 diabetes and  biological side effects.

While this update has been helpful to many, it may have come too late for numerous patients who developed type-2 diabetes after taking Lipitor. Many of these patients have filed Lipitor lawsuits against Pfizer, alleging that the company had deliberately concealed this information long before it was announced in 2012.