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LAWSUITS NEWS & LEGAL INFORMATION

Lipitor Lawsuits Mount

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Charleston, SCLipitor lawsuits, which allege patients who took the drug suffered serious side effects, are reportedly mounting. Plaintiffs claim Pfizer, maker of Lipitor, knew about the risks of serious side effects but did not offer adequate warnings about the risks, including a reported increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

According to a report from Reuters (8/8/14), the number of lawsuits filed against Pfizer in the past five months has gone from 56 to approximately 1,000, representing around 4,000 women. Those lawsuits all allege patients developed type 2 diabetes after using Lipitor and that Pfizer did not properly warn patients about that risk.

The recent increase in lawsuit filings is likely the result of the federal judicial panel consolidating the Lipitor diabetes lawsuits into one federal court. The nearly 1,000 lawsuits is a far cry from where litigation stood in 2013, when a motion for consolidation was denied because almost half the pending lawsuits were already in one district. When that motion was denied, there were five lawsuits and 24 potential tagalong actions in 13 districts.

Then, earlier this year with 56 lawsuits filed, a motion to consolidate the lawsuits for multidistrict litigation was approved.

“The present motion encompasses 56 constituent actions and over 170 tag-alongs,” the panel noted. “These actions are pending in more than 40 districts before more than 100 different judges.” The panel also noted that there are Lipitor diabetes lawsuits pending in at least three state courts.

The panel rejected Pfizer’s argument that consolidating the lawsuits would lead to a large number of non-viable Lipitor cases being filed to force a settlement.

Reuters notes that Lipitor is the best-selling prescription drug ever, making more than $130 billion since it was first approved in 1996. Pfizer has denied any liability and has said that it believes the benefits of the drug far outweigh the risks.

The first of the Lipitor bellwether trials is scheduled to go to court in July 2015. The outcome of that case could persuade Pfizer to settle with plaintiffs or it could result in cases being dropped.

In 2012, the warning label for Lipitor was updated to include an increased risk of diabetes. At the time the FDA announced the updated warning, the agency said that it still felt the benefits of Lipitor outweighed the risks.

The multidistrict litigation is In Re: Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium) Marketing, Salespractices and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2502.

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READER COMMENTS

Posted by

on
I have Type ii diabetes and my doctor could not understand how I controlled my disease so well. At one point my LDL WAS 100 and all was well. During my golleing visit I still register 100 but the doctor required me to take Li[itor as the goal post had changed to 70 per the iilatest regulations.
I had to take the medication for 6 weeks to insure that there would be no damage to my liver. All went well HOWEVER i developed pains in all of my houbts and muscles. I mentioned this to the pharmacist at Ft. Belvoir and she told me that I alergic to this medication and that I should stop it immediately. Since the doctor was on my way home I stopped and informed the doctor of this activity and ask the he prescribe an anti doze to overcome or erase the pains. His resoponse was that je did not have any recomedations to cure the pain. I responded that his practice was faulty and should have known matter. At that pooint I fired him immediately.
The pains continued for a period of two or more years and there as nothing I could do but bite the apple. The doctor was the top endroconolofist at the Mounr Vernon INOVA Hospital in Fairfax, VA

Posted by

on
I start taking Lipitor in 2000 and stopped taking it on or about 2010. During those 10 years, developed diabetes type II. However, the diabetes was so agressive, that I maintained an average of 240-400 readings.

Unknown to me, six months ago, my new doctor start prescribing (Atorvastatin Calcium). Only today, by reading this column, I learned that Lipitor and Atorvastatin Calcium are one and the same.

I asked my doctor to give me a certification / diagnosis that Lipitor was the reason for such high reading, and he refused.

Why the attorneys handling this Lipitor lawsuit do not hire their own doctors to diagnose potential clients and certify that Lipitor is the reason?

Posted by

on
I WAS TAKING LIPITOR AND AFTER I STARTED GETTING SICK FROM IT = GETTING NAUSEOUS ETC.= THEN I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES AND NOW IT HAS GOTTEN PROGRESSIVELY WORST. I AM NOW IN A WHEEL CHAIR AND HAVE NUROPATHY IN BOTH LEGS AND FEET, BOTH ARMS AND HANDS. IF YOU THINK I AM DUE ANYTHING IT WOULD BE A HUGE HELP AS I ONLY GET SS BECAUSE I CAN NO LONGER WORK ( I AM 100% DISABLED ) AND BOTH MY HUSBAND AND I TOGETHER ONLY GET $1002.00 A MONTH TO SURVIVE ON.
THANK YOU

Posted by

on
When are you going to start a class action suit for men? I started Lipitor in about 1998 and continued on it until about 2001. I went off the Lipitor until resuming it about 2006, and have been on it ever since. I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes in about 2009.

Posted by

on
Hi i took lipitor for yrs and do have diabetes , it;s not bad and i kinda control it with the foods i eat and just being careful . but sometimes its way up and then other times it goes down .lately because i am careful of what i eat it is between 130 to 180 , but if i dont eat from day before over twelve hrs and get blood test it has been down to 120 or a little less .plus the only thing i drink is water . and all i really crave is ice , i eat ice all day long and even at night when i wake up which is pretty often as i have high blood pressure and take water pills . anyway i answered this add months ago and a lawyer called me and asked for my medical records of when i took lipitor the drug store no longer goes back that far they told me to contact customer service at the manufacturing place they said they would call me back and never did .. so who knows . maybe someplace i can get records of it .? i do remember several yrs ago someone contacted me and said if i sent in all the prescription numbers they would reimburse me for some of the meds at that time the drug store gave me a huge list of how much how many and how often i refilled lipitor and they did send me some money but i don't remember how much .and the doctors i saw because of moving several times i don't even remember now names . i am 76 have had two bad car accidents , lots of surgery , metal joints replacements , and cancer surgery . and my memory is not great as it used to be . i also had three concussions and a brain bleed , metal in foot, ankle, leg, arm, wrist , plus many other broken bones ribs , nose three times , so i am really lucky to be alive . however i am the only one in my family who has gotten diabetes so maybe it is cause of the lipitor .? thanks for contacting me and maybe i will hear again from you ??

Posted by

on
ive been on lipitor for a little over a year and i developed type 2 diabetes about 2 mo ago witch has cost me some serious money and has affected my health

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