More Lipitor Plaintiffs Come Forward

Newport Beach, CAMore plaintiffs have come forward, filing Lipitor lawsuits against Pfizer, Inc., maker of Lipitor. The lawsuits allege patients suffered Lipitor side effects but were not adequately warned about the risks associated with taking the statin medication. One such lawsuit, filed in California in August 2013, highlights the complaints plaintiffs have made in their Lipitor claims.

The lawsuit was filed by Aubrey Isom against Pfizer and alleges negligence, failure to warn, breach of warranty and negligent misrepresentation. According to court documents, Isom took Lipitor (also known generically as atorvastatin calcium) and suffered injuries similar to those suffered by thousands of similar patients.

“Lipitor has been implicated in a national epidemic of type 2 diabetes in women taking Lipitor,” court documents allege. The lawsuit argues that Pfizer knew about the risk of diabetes for several years, but did not properly warn medical providers, resulting in thousands of women taking Lipitor, unaware that their blood sugar levels could be affected, or that they should be monitoring those levels.

Although Pfizer changed its label in 2012, the lawsuit argues that when it did so, the warning was vague and did not include direct information that consuming Lipitor could result in developing type 2 diabetes. Isom argues that the development of type 2 diabetes is preventable if blood sugar levels are properly monitored, but because of a lack of warning, patients did not know they should have monitored their blood sugar levels and, therefore, were not able to take proper steps to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.

“As such, the development of type 2 diabetes in patients taking LIPITOR was also preventable and resulted directly from Defendant’s refusal to conduct proper safety studies; follow up alarming safety signals’ suppression of information revealing life-threatening risks; wanton failure to provide adequate instructions and willful misrepresentations concerning the nature and safety of its product,” the lawsuit alleges.

In 2006, Isom was prescribed Lipitor to lower her levels of low-density lipoprotein, according to court documents. Approximately a year later, she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She claims that if she had known about the risk associated with Lipitor, she either would not have taken the medication at all or would have closely monitored her blood glucose levels.

Meanwhile, four more federal lawsuits were filed against Pfizer. The four were filed in March in West Virginia and allege the plaintiffs were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after taking Lipitor. According to The West Virginia Record (3/4/14), the four lawsuits each seek more than $75,000 in damages.

The Isom lawsuit is Isom vs. Pfizer, Inc., Case number 8:13-cv-10250-CJC-JPR, US District Court, Central District of California. The four West Virginia lawsuits are 14-cv-9, 14-cv-14, 14-cv-18 and 14-cv-22.