June 5, 2014 — A group of twelve people have filed a lawsuit alleging that AstraZeneca’s cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor (rosuvastatin) caused them to develop type-2 diabetes.
The lead plaintiff representing the group, Gloria Hererra, filed her complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Plaintiffs allege that AstraZeneca and McKesson Corp. knew about the risk of diabetes but concealed this information from doctors and consumers.
Hererra is a resident of California. Other members of the lawsuit are residents of Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Ohio, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Alabama.
According to the complaint (PDF):
“Defendants negligently, recklessly, and wantonly failed to warn plaintiffs, plaintiffs’ physicians and the general public, of the risks associated with Crestor. Defendants failed to do so even after various studies, including their own, showed that there were problems concerning the risks of cardiomyopathy, myocardial infarctions, sudden cardiac death, rhabdomyolysis (muscle deterioration), kidney damage, and diabetes.”
In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that the JUPITER clinical trial linked Crestor to a 27% increase in reports of diabetes compared to a placebo. The FDA updated warnings on all statin labels to include this risk information.
Diabetes occurs when the body has problems regulating blood-sugar levels. If the pancreas does not make enough insulin or if cells are desensitized to insulin, blood-sugar levels can get too high. Crestor and other statins can potentially increase blood-sugar levels and increase a user’s risk of type-2 diabetes.
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