Alabama plaintiffs Donna and Timothy Brown have filed a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer Inc., alleging that Mrs. Brown developed type-2 diabetes from taking the heart disease medication.

According to the Lipitor lawsuit, Mrs. Brown was first prescribed Lipitor by her doctor in November 1998, in order to lower her chances of heart disease. Her physician reportedly based this recommendation off of clinical and patient reviews, which promoted the drug’s efficiency in lowering cholesterol levels. Mrs. Brown remained on Lipitor until sometime in 2002, after she was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.

Mrs. Brown was diagnosed with diabetes in 2001, according to the Lipitor diabetes lawsuit. Prior to the diagnosis, Mrs. Brown reportedly ate a nutritious diet, was at a healthy weight, and exercised regularly. After her type-2 diabetes diagnosis, Brown must now follow a strict diabetic diet, take a variety of medications to control diabetic symptoms, undergo regular blood tests, and attend frequent doctor appointments.

Additionally, Brown is now more susceptible to blindness, neuropathy, kidney disease, and heart disease — the very condition Lipitor was supposed to prevent.

Brown and her husband are filing this Lipitor lawsuit in light of recent information they learned regarding Lipitor side effects. Televised commercials revealed that Lipitor is suspected of causing thousands of patients to develop type-2 diabetes.

Brown and many other patients have filed Lipitor lawsuits against Pfizer with similar allegations, demanding compensation for their pain and suffering. Furthermore, these plaintiffs assert that Pfizer had the responsibility to warn the public of any or all side effects of their products, because the public must rely on the accuracy of the given information.

According to the Lipitor lawsuit, Mrs. Brown’s physician was unaware of the side effects as well, as the company made no effort to notify the Browns of any relevant studies. Mrs. Brown insists that she never would have taken Lipitor if she had known about its link to type-2 diabetes.

Overview of Lipitor Complications

Lipitor was first approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996, and has become the most popularly prescribed medication in the world.  This drug is designed to help patients with high cholesterol as a preventative measure against cardiac complications. Ideally with diet and exercise, Lipitor would help patients live longer and healthier lives.

Lipitor is a part of the statin drug family, and works by reducing the amount of cholesterol and other fatty substances cells can absorb in blood. However, this mechanism has been shown to directly affect the patient’s metabolic process, which is what many medical experts suspect allows for the development of type-2 diabetes. Allegedly, Pfizer had initial knowledge of this side effect, but the company had chosen not to include it on Lipitor’s warning label until 2012.

Even with the new update, the language only mentions that the patient’s blood-sugar level may change after ingesting Lipitor, but does not explicitly mention type-2 diabetes.

The Lipitor lawsuit is Donna J. Brown and Timothy D. Brown v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-01892-RMG, in the U.S. District Court for the Nothern District of Alabama, Jasper Division.