New Lawsuit Says Pfizer Concealed Risk of Lipitor Diabetes

Brown was first prescribed Lipitor in 2009 to treat her rising cholesterol. It was her hope that with the help of this medication she could maintain her healthy lifestyle with diet and exercise, as to prevent heart disease. Those hopes were dashed when it was discovered that she had developed type-2 diabetes in 2011. 

Due to this new development for the plaintiff, she now has to undergo regular blood tests to measure her glucose levels, follow a strict diabetic diet, and to take medication to control her diabetes for the rest of her life, her Lipitor lawsuit says. Additionally, now that she has type-2 diabetes, Brown’s chances of developing heart disease has significantly increased, along with blindness, neuropathy, and kidney disease — all potential side effects of diabetes. Essentially, Lipitor has caused a direct contradiction to what the plaintiff wanted.

Brown is suing Pfizer for negligence, false advertisement, and concealing information for allegedly manufacturing, marketing, distributing, and selling a dangerous drug.

Overview of Lipitor Diabetes Complications

Lipitor was originally developed and approved by the FDA in 1996, and was originally manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert. However, after signing a co-marketing agreement with Pfizer to sell Lipitor, the defendant company eventually gained full rights to Lipitor in the summer of 2000.

With this information, the plaintiff and her legal team believe that Pfizer had previous and continuous knowledge that Lipitor side effects can cause diabetes, but chose to stay silent about it in the interest of protecting their profit. According to the Lipitor lawsuit, Pfizer did not begin making label changes to Lipitor’s warning label in August 2011, when it was under the FDA’s Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products.

Lipitor is a cholesterol-lowering medication that belongs to drug family called statins. Statins have been used to treat high cholesterol since the 1980s, but it was only recently that a possible association between statins and type-2 diabetes development was discovered. Lipitor is one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world, but like all statins, it has been brought under investigation for possibly causing type-2 diabetes in some patients.

A study conducted in 2010 analyzed 91,000 patients who had either been treated with a placebo pill or a statin. The results showed that over 50% of the statin patients developed diabetes. Furthermore, additional studies found that patients who have had pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure or history of high cholesterol are much more likely to develop type-2 diabetes.

It is currently unknown why statins cause type-2 diabetes in some patients, but the scientific data has made many concerned. With Lipitor’s popularity, medical experts are concerned that Lipitor will contribute to the growing epidemic of type-2 diabetes, with no remedy in sight. Annual sales of Lipitor are over $130 billion, and it is taken by more than 20 million people. 

Lipitor Lawsuits Grow

In February 2012, Pfizer updated Lipitor’s warning to label to include that the drug could possibly elevate their blood sugar levels. However, it does not describe the correlation between high blood sugar and causing type-2 diabetes, nor does it directly say that the drug may actually cause type-2 diabetes.

Brown is suing Pfizer for liability, negligence, breach of warranty, fraud, constructive fraud, and unjust enrichment. 

The Lipitor diabetes lawsuit, filed August 23, is Brown v. Pfizer Inc., Case No. 2:13-cv-04951-TJS, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Obtain a Free Lipitor Lawsuit Review

If you believe that you or a loved one has been the victim of a Lipitor type-2 diabetes development, you have legal options. Please visit the Lipitor Diabetes Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. There, you can submit your claim for a free legal review and if it qualifies for legal action, a seasoned Lipitor lawyer will contact you for a free, no-obligation consultation. You will be guided through the litigation process at no out-of-pocket expenses or hidden fees. The Lipitor lawyers working this investigation do not get paid until you do.