Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Things are getting even uglier between two pharmaceutical companies whose oral contraceptives will soon go head-to-head in America. First, Bayer announced it was suing Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for prematurely pushing Gianvi, its generic version of Bayer’s blockbuster birth control pill Yaz, also known as Yasmin.

Now, Bayer has waged another fight against the rival drug company. Bayer filed suit against Teva claiming some information on Gianvi’s label was false. The drug’s safety label claimed the birth control pill contained the same technology as Yaz that extended its shelf life. According to Bayer, Teva will inform U.S. pharmacists on a weekly basis for three months about the corrected physician prescribing information on the label. Teva has already updated the information on its U.S. website and provided the Food and Drug Administration with the corrected information.

Yaz contains drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol that is enclosed within a beta-cyclodextrin (betadex) clathrate. A clathrate is a molecule that forms a “cage” around another molecule or molecules. The betadex clathrate in Yaz is a Bayer-patented technology that protects the enclosed ethinyl estradiol molecule and stabilizes the product against oxidation. This patented technology enhances the product’s shelf life.

Bayer also faces more than a thousand lawsuits from women who claim they have suffered serious injuries such as blood clots, strokes and gallbladder damage from Yaz but the drug’s safety label did not adequately warn them about the risks.

Yaz has earned Bayer more than $1.5 billion since 2009.

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