The first Lipitor lawsuit scheduled for trial in the South Carolina multidistrict litigation has been pushed back from November 4 to January 13 of next year. U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, who is presiding over the federal Lipitor litigation, cited the Court’s heavy criminal caseload, which legally takes precedence on the Court’s civil docket.
Over 2,500 Lipitor diabetes lawsuits are currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Lipitor plaintiffs claim that Pfizer’s blockbuster cholesterol drug led them to develop diabetes. The earliest of these Lipitor lawsuits originated after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in 2012 that statins like Lipitor had been linked to increased blood sugar. The agency’s claims were affirmed by various studies that associated Lipitor with a significantly increased risk of diabetes in women. In addition to diabetes, statins have also been linked to musculoskeletal problems and memory loss.
In February 2014, the U.S. Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the consolidation of 56 Lipitor lawsuits in federal court in South Carolina. Since then, the number of cases has increased nearly 50-fold, and experts predict it could rise as high as 10,000.
Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns about the medications you are taking. If you or a loved one was diagnosed with diabetes after using a statin such as Lipitor, you should contact the lawyers at Lopez McHugh for a free consultation. We can determine whether you may qualify for legal compensation through a Lipitor diabetes lawsuit.
