A Lipitor lawsuit has been filed by a woman who alleges that the popular statin drug she was taking to control her cholesterol led her to develop type-2 diabetes.

Plaintiff Viveca McDowell claims in her Lipitor lawsuit that she took the medication between 1996 and 2013. A decade after she started, she was reportedly diagnosed with type-2 diabetes.

According to the Lipitor lawsuit, the medication, which was heavily marketed, contained no warnings regarding blood sugar elevation or diabetes when it prescribed to her.

Pfizer has since added information to the labeling that warns about “fasting serum glucose levels” but the Lipitor lawsuit alleges the phrasing is woefully inadequate because the average person taking the statin drug would not understand that increased glucose levels could lead to developing type-2 diabetes.

Further, the Lipitor lawsuit alleges that Pfizer should have known of this type-2 diabetes side effect. Among cholesterol drugs, Lipitor is linked to the highest rate of elevated blood sugar according to some studies.

Therefore, the Lipitor lawsuit claims, Pfizer either knew or should have known enough to update its product labeling and to do so in a clear fashion.

For those who have developed type-2 diabetes as a result of taking Lipitor, they now face constant medical monitoring and are at a higher risk for cardiopulmonary events, the very things that lowering cholesterol levels would have helped prevent, according to the Lipitor lawsuit

The Lipitor Type-2 Diabetes Lawsuit is Viveca McDowell v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 14-cv-2422 in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. It was added to In re: Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502.