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

You could call it a public relations maneuver — Bayer Healthcare’s new website encouraging women to come to them with questions and advice about contraception instead of relying on biased bloggers or the Internet. The unbranded video features blindfolded women handling a rhino and trying to guess what it is. Awkward? Maybe. At the very least, BayerforWomen.com has captured the attention of Medical Marketing & Media. But, what makes Bayer a reliable source for women?

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The bad press surrounding Yaz birth control pills is beginning to catch up with the nation’s top selling oral contraceptive. It’s two-year-old television advertisement on YouTube featuring smiling women and floating balloons with the words “irritability’ and “moodiness” printed on them has more than 50,000 views, but the comments from viewers are less than flattering.

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Members of the Oral Contraceptive Over-the-Counter Working Group are advocating to – you guessed it – make birth control pills available for women without a prescription. But it is in the best interest for women when they can carry serious and even life-threatening risks?

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Women who have high blood pressure should use caution when taking birth control pills because the estrogen in oral contraceptives puts them at greater risk of developing blood clots and heart problems. High blood pressure affects about 74.5 million people in the United States age 20 and older.

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Bayer has dropped its patent suit in Delaware against Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., and Barr Pharmaceuticals for infringing on its multi-million-dollar-selling oral contraceptive Yaz. Bayer had filed the lawsuit claiming TVA’s generic version of Yaz, known as Gianvi, infringed on Yaz. However, Bayer says it is maintaining its patent suit against Teva and Barr in Nevada District Court.

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A Louisiana woman is suing Bayer Corporation claiming the company’s top-selling birth control pill Yaz caused her to develop life-threatening blood clots in her lungs. Heather Gillespie claims that the makers of the oral contraceptive, also known as Yasmin and the generic ocella, failed to warn her of the risks associated with taking the pills. She is seeking damages.

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District Judge David Herndon is ordering sales representatives who pushed the oral contraceptives Yasmin, Yaz, Ocella and Gianvi to produce all their files and communications for national litigation. The order covers “all written materials, video and/or audio tapes” and includes training materials, e-mails, voice mail transcripts, summaries of meetings, incentive and goal plans, and all communications between representatives and managers. Herndon also ordered Bayer Health Care Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Schering Pharma, Barr Laboratories, and Teva Pharmaceuticals to produce records from their facilities.

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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.

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An understudy for the Broadway show “Wicked” has joined a lawsuit against Bayer HealthCare, claiming the company’s best-seller birth control pill Yasmin caused her to suffer a stroke at the young age of 27. Brenda Hamilton had been on the pill two years when in May 2007 she became ill. She has since recovered.

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Twenty-five California women have joined more than a thousand others across the country in a lawsuit against Bayer HealthCare claiming the company’s blockbuster birth control pills – Yaz and Yasmin – caused them to suffer life threatening health problems such as strokes and blood clots. The defendants say the company was aware its oral contraceptives increased a woman’s chances of serious health problems even more than other birth control pills, yet the company failed to adequately warn women of that risk.

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