July 11, 2013 — A woman from Mississippi has filed a Lipitor lawsuit after she developed type-2 diabetes. The plaintiff alleges that Pfizer failed to adequately warn about the link between Lipitor and diabetes. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been warning about the risk of diabetes since 2011, lawsuits allege that Pfizer continues to downplay this severe, life-threatening side effect.
Click here to read the Complaint (.PDF)
Plaintiff filed her lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on July 1, 2013. According to her complaint, she began using Lipitor in December 2009 to reduce her cholesterol and her risk of heart disease. In April 2012, she was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. She alleges that she was not warned about the risk of diabetes. Furthermore, if she had been warned, she would not have used Lipitor or she would have monitored her blood-sugar levels more closely.
The evidence linking Lipitor and diabetes has been growing for many years. In 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviewed several critical studies linking statins and diabetes. They issued a Safety Warning and required Pfizer to add new warnings to the label on Lipitor. The label was changed in February 2012 to read:
“Increases in HbA1c and fasting serum glucose levels have been reported with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, including Lipitor.”
Until this February 2012 change, the label on Lipitor never carried warnings about blood-sugar side effects. Many lawyers are concerned that the label is still inadequate to inform people about the risk of diabetes. According to the plaintiff’s Mississippi Lipitor lawsuit: “continues to fail to warn customers of the serious risk of developing type-2 diabetes when using Lipitor.”
Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) is a medication used to reduce levels of “low-density lipoprotein” (LDL) cholesterol and other fatty substances in the blood. It is prescribed to people with pre-existing heart disease to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke.
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