Lawsuit Says Pfizer Didn’t Warn about Lipitor’s Risk for Diabetes

Matthews found this out the hard way. She began taking Lipitor in April 2004 to decrease her LDL and risk of future heart disease. According to her Lipitor lawsuit, she was always healthy, carried a normal weight and was physically active. Her healthy lifestyle didn’t prevent the Lipitor-caused diabetes, though. She was diagnosed with diabetes in late July, 2010, — six years after she began taking the drug.

“As a result, for the rest of her life she must undergo regular testing of blood glucose levels, adhere to a restrictive diabetic diet, and take medication to control her diabetes,” her Lipitor lawsuit states.  She filed her Lipitor lawsuit on July 26, 2013 in Mississippi.

Lipitor Lawsuit Details Plaintiff’s Suffering

Matthews “has endured pain and suffering, has suffered economic loss, including incurring significant expenses for medical care and treatment, and will continue to incur expenses in the future,” her Lipitor lawyer says in the complaint.

While type-2 diabetes is manageable, it’s not without serious lifestyle changes, regular medical care and associated risks. Matthews didn’t realize Lipitor was dangerous until she was diagnosed with diabetes several years after starting the drug. She’s suing Pfizer for failure to warn, negligence, breach of warranty, fraud, unjust enrichment, and punitive damages.

In her Lipitor lawsuit, Matthews is asking for medical, incidental and hospital expenses, pre- and post-judgment, a full refund of Lipitor, compensatory damages, consequential damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and any other relief the court sees as appropriate. She’s also demanding a trial by jury.

According to the lawsuit against Pfizer, “despite its knowledge of data indicating that Lipitor is casually related to the development of type-2 diabetes and/or blood glucose levels diagnostic for type-2 diabetes, Pfizer promoted and marketed Lipitor as safe and effective” for people like Pearl Matthews.

The FDA requested that Pfizer update the warnings for Lipitor diabetes side effects in August 2011, but that was too late for Matthews and many others.

Pfizer took until February 2012 to make the requested changes, further allowing more patients and doctors to continue to use or prescribe Lipitor without knowing the real risks.

“Until the February 2012 change, Lipitor’s label had never warned patients of any potential relation between changes in blood sugar levels and taking Lipitor,” the Lipitor lawsuit states. Without those warnings, physicians, pharmacists and patients don’t have necessary information to make informed decisions. Matthews and her physician weren’t given the option of considering if the risk of type-2 diabetes was worth taking Lipitor.

Dangerous Drugs on the Market

In Matthews’ claim, it’s stated that at all times, Lipitor “was defective and unsafe in manufacture such that it was unreasonably dangerous to the user, and was so at the time it was distributed” by the manufacturer. Since it wasn’t accompanied by adequate warnings, the “defect caused serious injury” to Matthews and probably many other Lipitor victims who haven’t stepped forward yet. Since type-2 diabetes is a fairly common disease, and it can appear at any time in a person’s life, some people may not even be aware that their cholesterol medication caused the disease.