Pfizer Prevails in Calif. Federal Lipitor Injury Action

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A California federal judge has dismissed an action in which a man alleged that Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor caused him to develop statin induced rhabdomyolysis, ruling that the label warned of that very risk.

In a Jan. 16 order, Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California concluded that the plaintiff failed to support his allegation that Pfizer was aware of, yet failed to warn, of the drug’s “high rate of unexplained failures.”

In 2018, David Holcomb was prescribed Lipitor. After Holcomb had taken the drug for five …