WHEELING -- Four West Virginia women have filed federal lawsuits claiming Pfizer sold a drug linked to diabetes.
Janelle Frame, Donna Anderson and Laura Fisher filed lawsuits Feb. 3 in the Northern District of West Virginia Court against Pfizer Inc., citing product liability, failure to warn, negligence, breach of implied warranty, fraud, constructive fraud and unjust enrichment. Dorothy A. Crow filed a similar lawsuit Feb. 14, also in the Northern District.
According to the complaints, Pfizer has been selling Lipitor, a drug prescribed to reduce the amount of cholesterol and other fatty substances in the blood, since the 1990s, despite knowledge that Lipitor use is related to the development of type 2 diabetes.
Frame was prescribed and used Lipitor from 2010 to 2012, and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2011, despite her healthy weight and diet. Similarly, Anderson was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2009 after taking Lipitor and Fisher was diagnosed in 2011 after Lipitor treatment. Crow began taking the drug in 1998, and she says she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2011.
Each of the women are seeking more than $75,000 in damages. Frame, Anderson and Fisher are being represented in the case by attorneys James C. Peterson and Aaron L. Harrah of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler and Joshua M. Mankoff of Lopez McHugh LLP, and Crow is being represented by attorney Thomas G. Wilson.