Pfizer hit with lawsuits over Lipitor

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is faced with a raft of lawsuits brought by women who allege that the company was aware of possible serious side effects of its blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor but failed to appropriately warn the public, Reuters reported.

According to a Reuters review of federal court rulings in the past five months, lawsuits by US women who said that taking Lipitor gave them type-2 diabetes had shot up from 56 to almost 1,000.

Filing of lawsuits started soon after the Food and Drug Administration in 2012 warned of a ''small increased risk'' of diabetes, linked to incidents of memory loss from use of the drug. The plaintiffs' lawyers said, women faced a higher risk than men of developing diabetes from using Lipitor, and gain fewer benefits.

The increasing number of lawsuits comes after a decision by a federal judicial panel to consolidate all Lipitor diabetes lawsuits from around the country into a single federal courtroom in Charleston, South Carolina.

Opposing the consolidation Pfizer argued it would prompt copycat filings. The first case is scheduled to come up before a court next July.

In a statement, the company said it denied liability and would fight the lawsuits.

Lipitor, a statins class of drug, is primarily used to lower down cholesterol level in the body to prevent cardiovascular diseases, Tech Times reports.

Most of the plaintiffs had in recent months complained that even though Lipitor was able to lower cholesterol level in the body, it also developed type-2 diabetes in the patients.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement revealing some of the potential side effects of statins.

Amy G Egan, deputy director for safety in FDA's Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products (DMEP), said the value of statins in the prevention of heart disease had been clearly established, Tech Times reported. Their benefit was indisputable, but they needed to be taken with care and knowledge of their side effects, she added.

According to reports, heart diseases topped the list of diseases that caused death. A drug like Lipitor had saved the lives of millions of people worldwide. Lipitor was a top prescription drug of all time and, according to reports, 29 million Americans had been prescribed Lipitor.

The question that arose was whether heart benefit of a medicine such as Lipitor outweighed the risk of getting other diseases such as type-2 diabetes.

Meanwhile, Pfizer said the pharmaceutical company was against the consolidation of cases and it would result in "copycat filings."

Also, Pfizer denied that Lipitor caused the onset of type-2 diabetes in patients. The company suggested it would fight against the lawsuits.

"Pfizer denies the plaintiffs' claims that Lipitor caused their new onset diabetes, a medical condition that is highly prevalent in the patient population prescribed statins, and we intend to vigorously defend against the allegations," a company spokesperson said, in an email to Medical Daily.