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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.
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.
Dawn Varrechio, a mother of four, was shocked to discover that her breathing problems were due to blood clots in both of her lungs. But she became angry when she found out her birth control pills were the culprit. “It’s scary to think that at 35, you could be gone, like that quickly,” she told CBS3 News.
As Bayer HealthCare begins defending itself against a flurry of lawsuits citing health problems over its blockbuster birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, the drug company announced it has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a new oral contraceptive. Bayer’s Natazia combines the hormones estrogen and progestin in doses that adjust four times throughout a women’s menstruation cycle. Natazia is the first birth control pill to use the four-phase dosing protocol with the added benefit of controlling irregular bleeding better than other pills.
Bayer boasted a 63.1 percent increase in net income for the first quarter of 2010, but the firm’s pharmaceutical sales were a big disappointment, according to PharmaTimes. Bayer posted increases in its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization as well as in its group turnover. However Bayer’s health care sales stayed flat while pharmaceutical revenues fell a disappointing 2.2 percent.
Even before Bayer Healthcare agreed to change the label on its No. 1 selling birth control pills, Yaz and Yasmin, to include an elevated risk of blood clots and other health problems, a citizen’s right advocacy group placed the oral contraceptive on its “Do Not Use” list. The move by Public Citizen was in direct response to the mounting lawsuits filed against the company alleging the pills caused high potassium levels that can cause the heart to slow down and allow life-threatening blood clots to form.
When Bayer Healthcare launched its new style birth control pills Yasmin and Yaz in 2001 and 2006, respectively, the drugs were marketed under the guise that they were safer than other oral contraceptives. Formulated with a synthetic hormone and containing a diuretic, drospirenone, the pills were touted as having an added benefit of clearing up problem acne and easing the symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). But the honeymoon has ended for Bayer, which is now facing more than a thousand lawsuits from women who said they were not adequately warned that the pills could cause serious and life-threatening health problems such as blood clots and gallbladder problems.
Bayer HealthCare has added new information on the labels of its blockbuster birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin to warn users that the risk of developing blood clots while taking the pills are similar to the risks with other oral contraceptives. The label change comes on the heels of hundreds of lawsuits filed both in the United States and Canada by women who say they were injured by Yaz or Yasmin but were not adequately warned of the risks associated with taking the pills. Bayer agreed to make the changes to the pills’ labels based on two large, multiyear studies of more than 120,000 women taking contraceptives in the U.S. and the U.K.
Despina Papparis says her daughter Chloe is alive by “sheer luck.” The Canadian teenager, now 18, was rushed to the hospital after suffering from bad migraines and vomiting that was originally thought to be symptoms of the swine flu. But an emergency room doctor ordered a CT scan that found five blood clots in her brain. Doctors said if she had she waited one more day to seek treatment, she would have died. But it was what they said caused the malady that took the Papparises by surprise. They said her birth control pills were to blame.
Monica Dakin lost a year of her life because of her birth control pills.
The 23-year-old Canadian was prescribed the popular oral contraceptive Yaz last May to treat her ovarian cysts. She believed the low-dose hormone carried fewer side effects than other birth control pills. But soon after starting the medication, she was doubled over with abdominal pain. Dakin was hospitalized six times in the first six months before surgeons finally removed her gallbladder in an emergency procedure.
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