Bayer HealthCare is facing numerous lawsuits from women and their family members who say they were seriously injured or killed after taking the drug company’s blockbuster birth control pill, Yaz. Yet, Yaz remains the company’s top-selling pharmaceutical, generating a whopping $1.3 billion in the first three quarters of 2009, according to Medical Marketing & Media.
The year Leah Mayfield died, Bayer HealthCare made $600 million on its popular birth control pill, Yaz. The drug, also known by the brand name Yasmin and the generic brand Ocella, was touted for the added benefit of stomping out the bothersome symptoms of severe premenstrual syndrome, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). It is the combination of ethinyl estradiol and the diuretic drospirenone that make Yaz different than other birth control pills. But that combination has proven deadly to numerous women who have taken it, including 20-year-old Leah.
Bayer Healthcare Corp. says it sufficiently warned women that there was a risk of life-threatening side effects associated with its oral contraceptives, Yaz and Yasmin. The drug company claims that all birth control pills carry warnings of possible side effects and that if taken properly, their drugs are safe.
In early 2009, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals launched a $20 million advertising campaign for its blockbuster birth control pill, Yaz. The ads carried the same message: “You may have seen some Yaz commercials recently that were not clear. The FDA wants us to correct a few points in those ads.”
More than 50 women in Indiana are suing Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc., the makers of Yaz, Yasmin and its generic brand Ocella, claiming the birth control pills caused them heart attacks and strokes. The women are among hundreds across the country who say they were not appropriately warned of the risk of serious adverse events associated with the drugs.
From April 2009 until July 2009, Adrienne Cechura of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, took Ocella, the generic band of the oral contraceptive known by the brand names Yaz or Yasmin. Yaz is the top-selling birth control pill in the United States, generating more than $600 million in sales. The pill offers a different formula than typical birth control pills. It contains drospirenone, a diuretic. The combination drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol is touted as a treatment for acne and premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, a premenstrual condition marked by severe emotional and physical symptoms.
