Thousands of Women in Lipitor diabetes Lawsuit - Liebhard

Thousands of Women in Lipitor Lawsuit Claims to Join South Carolina Litigation, Status Report Shows

Published on June 16, 2014 by Sandy Liebhard 

More than a hundred cases filed by some 3,000 female Lipitor lawsuit plaintiffs will soon join the federal diabetes drug litigation in the U.S. District Court, District of South Carolina, according to court documents.

A status report recently submitted by parties involved in the federal litigation indicates that 134 cases alleging new-onset Type 2 diabetes will be transferred to the multidistrict litigation in the coming weeks, on behalf of 3,000 plaintiffs.

According to Lipitor lawsuits included in the soon-to-be transferred claims, use of the cholesterol medication, may increase a woman’s likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes, which its manufacturer allegedly knew about but concealed from the public. Lipitor diabetes lawsuits included in the federal proceeding, which was created by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) less than six months ago, include similar actions against Pfizer Inc. that accuse the company of marketing a product that was designed defectively.

A Case List updated June 16th by the JPML also shows a continued increase in the number of Lipitor lawsuits filed in South Carolina federal court. An update posted that day reflects 846 cases now pending in the federal litigation, which held its most recent status conference on June 13th. A month earlier, a total of 703 claims had been filed in South Carolina.

More than 840 Claims Now Filed in Lipitor Diabetes Litigation

Lipitor is a medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help lower cholesterol levels in individuals who may be at an increased risk for strokes and heart attacks.
Since entering the market in 1996, the FDA issued a mandate in February 2012 that required Pfizer to adjust Lipitor’s labeling to include its possible association with Type 2 diabetes.  This action was prompted by research published a month earlier in JAMA: Internal Medicine that found post-menopausal women at an increased risk for developing the disease. In May 2013, results of a study published in the British Medical Journal showed a 22 percent increased risk for Type 2 diabetes in patients taking atorvastatin, the generic version of Lipitor.
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UPDATE:

Pfizer confronts surge of lawsuits over Lipitor

By Jessica Dye

Fri Aug 8, 2014 1:22am EDT