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Lipitor Type 2 Diabetes Litigation Heating up

| Mar 5, 2014 | Drug and Medical Device Litigation, Lipitor

Countless people who took Lipitor (Atorvastatin) and were later diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are seeking to hold Pfizer and its distributors responsible.  In California, cases filed throughout the State have been coordinated before Judge Jane Johnson in Los Angeles with an initial status conference held on February 25, 2014. (See JCCP 4761). Judge Johnson was assigned the cases on January 15, 2014 and on February 25, 2014, Judge Johnson entered Orders regarding the Add On procedures, filing of complaints, and appointed the Plaintiffs Leadership group including Steering committee to act on behalf of Plaintiffs in the litigation.  (Thomas J. Brandi of The Brandi Law Firm was appointed to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee.)  The Court set April 2, 2014 as the next date for further Status conference.

Los Angeles JCCP 4761 Judge Jane L. Johnson’s Background

Judge Jane Luecke Johnson is a Loyola Law School graduate who practiced with her husband in the firm of Johnson & Johnson Professional Law Corporation for 18 years, specializing in the area of business litigation and transactional work.  She was elected a Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner in September 1997 and was appointed as a Judge in July of 2000.  She served as a family law judicial officer for three years, was transferred to general jurisdiction civil in 2001, and has been assigned to the complex division in Dept. 308 at CCW since October 2010.  She has been a member of the faculty at the Judicial College, for CJER programs, and for the Los Angeles Superior Court JES programs, currently serving as the Chair of the JES Civil Education program.

MDL No. 2502 and Judge Richard Gergel

On February 18, 2014, 56 pending cases in other federal courts were assigned to a MDL in South Carolina (In re Lipitor (Atorvastatin) Litigation, MDL No. 2502 (JPML).  14 of the pending cases were filed in South Carolina. The Hon. Richard M. Gergel in Charleston S.C. was assigned the cases.  He was nominated by President Obama in 2009.

Judge Gergel was a principal and senior partner with Gergel, Nickles and Solomon, P.A, in Columbia, South Carolina, where he has specialized in personal injury litigation, employment discrimination matters, and complex government litigation since 1983.  Prior to that, he worked as an attorney with Medlock and Davis in South Carolina where he handled employment cases in state and federal court and in administrative proceedings.  Judge Gergel received his B.A. from Duke University in 1975, and J.D. from Duke in 1979.

Failure to Warn

The Brandi Law Firm has filed a number of actions in California that are in the JCCP proceeding.  We represent people from California and throughout the nation.  The essential allegations in all of these cases is that Plaintiff developed Type 2 diabetes while on Lipitor and that the manufacturer and its distributors failed to warn physicians and consumers of the risk, which was known or knowable to them.  In February 2012, the following additional language was added to the Lipitor label: “Increases in HbA1c and fasting serum glucose levels have been reported with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, including Lipitor.”

Discovery will focus on the defendant’s knowledge of the risks, and what they did to convey necessary information to doctors and consumers.  As in other drug cases involving this office,  plaintiffs will seek information on the pre-market and after market testing, research, and clinical trials, as well as marketing, interactions with the FDA and other regulatory bodies, and relationships with Doctors.

Lipitor Medical Studies

In January of 2012, in a study published in the medical journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, that found that female patients between the ages of 50 and 79 who took statin medications (i.e., Lipitor and other LDL-lowering drugs) were 48 percent more likely to develop type-2 diabetes as compared to women in the same age group who did not take the drugs.  The study recruited 161,808 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years at 40 clinical centers across the United States from 1993 to 1998 with ongoing follow-up and data through 2005.  The study looked at whether there was an association between the use of statins and Diabetes Mellitus and concluded: “Statin medication in post menopausal women is associated with an increased risk of DM”.  The study also reported a significantly increased risk of DM with women with a BMI below 30 as compared to women above 30.

This has a profound effect on many baby boomer women who represent a large number of Lipitor users.

Dr. Eric Topol is a cardiologist with the Scripps Clinic and a recognized pioneer in the field of cardiovascular medicine.  For fourteen years, he ran the Cleveland Health Clinic, has authored over 1100 articles and 30 books, and was a founder of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.  An OP Ed article he wrote in the New York Times on March 5, 2012 about statins bears reexamination in light of the revelations of the Women’s Health Study that found that female patients between the ages of 50 and 79 who took statin medications (i.e., Lipitor and other LDL-lowering drugs) were 48 percent more likely to develop type-2 diabetes as compared to women in the same age group who did not take the drugs.

In his article entitled “The Diabetes Dilemma For Statin Users”, Dr. Topol looked at several large studies about statins, their potency and effect, including Lipitor (Atorvastatin), Zocor (simvastatin) and Crestor (Rosuvastatin), and stated that with the more potent statins including Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor “particularly at higher doses, that the risk of diabetes shows up.  The cause and effect was unequivocal because the multiple large trials of the more potent statins had a consistent excess of diabetes.”

The Brandi Law Firm is nationally recognized for its long involvement in cases involving defects in drugs or devices.  If you or a loved one have taken Lipitor and been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, based on medical studies, there is a potential claim against the manufacturer.  We work on a team approach with two lawyers, legal assistants, and a nurse lawyer assigned to each individual case.  If you would like more information, please contact The Brandi Law Firm by e-mail or call 415-989-1800 or (800) 481-1615We have also set up a website dedicated to providing the most up to date Lipitor lawyer and Lipitor lawsuit information at www.lipitorlawsuitattorney.com.

Trademark Notice

Lipitor is a registered trademark of Pfizer Inc.  The use of this trademark is solely for product identification and informational purposes.  Pfizer Inc. is not affiliated with this website, and Pfizer Inc. has no affiliation with The Brandi Law Firm.  Nothing on this site has been authorized or approved by Pfizer Inc.

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