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› $4.85 Billion settlement in drug case
Drug company Bayer is facing more than 1,100 lawsuits alleging its popular birth control pill Yaz causes life-threatening blood clots. According to the pharmaceutical company’s 2009 annual report, 129 new suits were filed in November 2009 alone. Many suits have been consolidated into federal multi-district litigation, fueling speculation that more lawsuits are on the way.
Vicki Parsons had been on the popular Yaz birth control pill for just three weeks when her life nearly came to an end. It started with a pain in her foot that just days later had her in the hospital. She was diagnosed with blood clots – one in her leg and the other in her lungs. It was an odd diagnosis for a young woman with no history of the health problem and no habits, like smoking, that made her more susceptible to blood clots. After a battery of tests, the doctors determined it was her birth control pills that triggered the clots.
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.
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.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Washington D.C. has chosen the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Illinois in East St. Louis to handle multidistrict litigation for what could be as many as 25,000 Yaz lawsuits. Chief Judge David Herndon will preside over the pre-trial proceedings, which have been filed by plaintiffs in all parts of the country against Bayer, the manufacturer of the popular oral contraceptive.
A 30-year-old mother of three has joined the hundreds of women who have filed lawsuits against Bayer HealthCare, alleging that her use of the birth-control pill Yaz caused her to develop life-threatening blood clots in her left leg.
Attorneys representing women who have been seriously harmed by Yaz expect that the number of lawsuits against Bayer will escalate dramatically in the coming years, possibly involving thousands of plaintiffs. A 41-year-old writer from Bethesda, Maryland, who is one of the most recent plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against Bayer, recently described her experience taking the drug to the Washington Times.
A Pittsburgh woman has joined a lawsuit against Bayer, claiming that her teenage daughter was injured and nearly died as a result of taking Yaz. Dana Kraus, the plaintiff, told Pittsburgh’s WTAE that her 15-year-old daughter Katie had been taking the birth control drug for 6 months before she started experiencing severe side effects, which began with the sensation of suffocating.
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