Researchers involved in a new study have found that side effects of popular statin-based cholesterol medications like Lipitor and Crestor may increase the risk of new-onset diabetes in patients. In the study, published late last month in the medical journal Diabetes Care, researchers from the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy indicate that the longer a patient uses Lipitor or another statin drug, the higher their risk of suffering diabetes side effects. If you took Lipitor and you have since been diagnosed with diabetes side effects, our consumer advocates at the Consumer Justice Foundation can help put you in touch with a product liability lawyer who has experience handling Lipitor diabetes claims.
In the study, the researchers examined data on 115,709 Italian residents, all of whom were newly prescribed Lipitor, Crestor or another statin medication between 2003 and 2004. They analyzed the study participants’ adherence to the cholesterol therapy by 2010, and compared the outcomes of patients with a low adherence, medium adherence and high adherence to statin therapy during the years between. According to their findings, low adherence patients had a 12% higher risk of developing diabetes than those who did not take a statin drug, patients with a medium adherence had a 22% increased risk, and patients with a high adherence had a 32% increased risk.
Statin drugs like Lipitor and Crestor are among the most widely-prescribed medications in the world, but serious concerns have been raised in recent years about the safety of the cholesterol-lowering drugs, and their potential connection to diabetes side effects. This Italian study comes less than a month after Canadian researchers found that users of powerful statins like Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor may face a 15% increased risk of developing diabetes within two years of starting treatment. Earlier this year, researchers from the UK found that 3% of patients taking statin medications were later diagnosed with diabetes, compared to only 2.4% of patients who were given a placebo.
Lipitor and other statin medications function by blocking the body’s production of cholesterol, which is a key contributor to coronary artery disease. Although the medications are used by millions of patients in the United States alone, a number of studies have linked the drugs to an increased risk of serious side effects, including diabetes, muscle damage and kidney problems. In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required the makers of statin drugs like Lipitor to add new warnings to their labels, highlighting the potential impact of the medications on blood glucose levels.
Pfizer currently faces hundreds of Lipitor lawsuits filed on behalf of former users who developed diabetes while taking the medication, all of which involve similar allegations that the drug maker knew or should have known about the risk of diabetes associated with its blockbuster drug. If you have been diagnosed with diabetes or another serious medical problem, and you believe a potentially dangerous pharmaceutical drug like Lipitor to be the cause, contact a knowledgeable Lipitor lawyer today for legal help. You may have grounds to file a Lipitor lawsuit against Pfizer, in order to pursue financial compensation for your injuries and medical expenses.
[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Source: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2014/06/19/dc13-2215.abstract[/box]
