Martinsburg Woman Files Lipitor Atorvastatin Type 2 Diabetes Lawsuit

Martinsburg, WVHer name is Charlotte T. Kearnes and she has a diabetic beef with Pfizer and Lipitor, a popular drug designed to lower so-called bad LDL cholesterol. Margaret Clark is a well-known Lipitor litigant whose name pops up in the news media and online searches with regard to Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuits MDL. But Clark is by far not the only plaintiff who alleges Lipitor has triggered diabetes.

Kearnes is one of the latest plaintiffs. According to a report in the West Virginia Record (11/6/13), Kearnes was put on a Lipitor regimen by her doctor in 2005. Four years later, according to court records, Kearnes was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Given that Lipitor has been linked in some studies to diabetes, and also carries a warning by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that Lipitor (atorvastatin) carries the potential risk for atorvastatin type 2 diabetes, Kearnes alleges in her lawsuit that Lipitor - and the manufacturer of Lipitor, Pfizer Inc. - is responsible for her diabetes, and the Martinsburg woman has filed a lawsuit.

“As a result, for the rest of her life, Ms. Kearnes must undergo regular testing of her blood glucose levels, adhere to a restrictive diabetic diet, maintain an exercise regimen, and take medication to control her diabetes,” the complaint says.

“As a result of her diabetes, Ms. Kearnes has developed vision loss so severe that she had to have cataract surgery in both of her eyes. Ms. Kearnes is now also at a markedly increased risk of heart disease, neuropathy, and blindness as a result of her diabetes.”

It is not known if Kearnes’ case will become part of the Lipitor Diabetes Lawsuits MDL. The West Virginia Record reports that defendant Pfizer had removed 36 Lipitor cases filed in a southern county court to federal court two weeks prior to the emergence of this latest lawsuit. Kearnes filed her lawsuit October 28 in US District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia at Martinsburg. The lawsuit is Kearnes v. Pfizer, Inc. Case No. 3:2013cv00154.

It should be noted, according to the West Virginia Record report, that US District Judge Gina Groh disqualified herself, on November 1, from the Kearnes case without explanation. The case has now been assigned to presiding Judge John Preston Bailey, chief judge of the Northern District of West Virginia.

Pfizer is reported to have updated the prescribing label for Lipitor in 2012 to include references to the possibility of diabetes as an adverse event associated with use of Lipitor. However, critics of Pfizer cite the label update as too little, too late - and the warning would not have helped plaintiff Kearnes, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in August 2009 - about three years before the label update.

Kearnes notes in her Lipitor lawsuit that had she known about the potential for atorvastatin type 2 diabetes she would have monitored her blood glucose levels while she was on Lipitor, or might have opted to not use Lipitor at all.