About 7,000 lawsuits have been filed against Bayer by women or their family members who allege that they were not warned by Bayer that company’s birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin could put them at serious risk of life-threatening blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, and gallbladder damage. More plaintiffs are joining the lawsuit and some estimate that there could be as many as 14,000 plaintiffs in all.

While the documents are stored at a St. Louis-based law firm and are managed by one attorney with a full-time IT employee for technical support, firms across the country are helping review the documents and can access the database remotely. To date, about 150 attorneys have been trained how to use the data base, and up to 50 people review the documents as much as five days a week.

The paperwork not only includes documents related to Bayer’s Yaz and Yasmin, but also to generic versions of the drugs, including Ocella and Gianvi.

The first bellwether case trial is set for September. Aside from the federal litigation in southern Illinois, consolidated lawsuits are pending in Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey state courts.

SOURCE: Yaz Lawsuit › Bayer generates millions of pages for Yaz, Yasmin lawsuits

Apparently, some lessons are never learned. The company has just agreed to pay another $3.3 million to Oregon, California and Illinois over ads for its vitamin One A Day Men’s Health Formula, that claim the supplement contains an ingredient that may reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

Bayer launched a “Strike Out Prostate Cancer” campaign with Major League Baseball and placed messages on its One A Day vitamins that read: “Did you know that prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men and that emerging research suggests Selenium may reduce the risk of prostate cancer?” At issue is a federally funded Selenium study that found that selenium did not prevent prostate cancer in a group of otherwise healthy men, and if anything, Selenium may raise the risk of diabetes.

The study prompted the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest to send a letter to Bayer asking them to stop making the false claims. Bayer did so but the group joined forces with the states and filed suit against the drug maker. The settlement requires Bayer to support future claims with “competent and reliable evidence.”

Meanwhile, supplement makers recently won a federal court ruling that allows a very qualified claim of a beneficial effect of Selenium on prostate cancer. That ruling may be appealed. As the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission argue over how to regulate claims made by supplement makers, consumers are left to wonder who they can trust.

SOURCE: Yaz Lawsuit › Questionable ads from Bayer make consumers wonder what to believe

Yaz incorporates a unique progestin, drospirenone, with ethinyl estradiol, a more common ingredient used in birth control drugs. Many women who have been injured after starting a Yaz regimen allege that the drug poses a multitude of serious risks, which Bayer downplayed in its Yaz marketing campaigns.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration admonished Bayer in October 2008, citing the company for “significant deviations” in its promotion of Yaz. The complaint largely centered on the understatement of the drug’s risks and the overstatement of its benefits, including the treatment of conditions for which the drug was not approved. The misleading marketing campaign is frequently cited in lawsuits brought against Bayer by former Yaz users.

Some of the most serious side effects associated with Yaz include stroke, heart arrhythmia cardiac arrest, deep vein thrombosis and other forms of blood clotting, pulmonary embolism, gallbladder disease, kidney damage or failure, and sudden death.

Judge Herndon told Southwestern Illinois’ Belleville News-Democrat that he may also conduct bellwether trials, a cluster of cases selected because they reflect the charges and allegations of the other lawsuits. The outcome of bellwether trials helps establish guidelines for other cases.

When a significant number of similar lawsuits, such as those being brought against Bayer over Yaz injuries, accumulate in federal courts, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation normally moves to consolidate them in one U.S. District Court to avoid redundant efforts and inconsistent pre-trial rulings. The dynamics of these representative trials will then be considered in the evaluation of other cases.

SOURCE: Yaz Lawsuit › Southern Illinois district court to handle Yaz lawsuits

Development of gall stones and gall bladder disease are among the serious risks associated with the oral contraceptive Yaz. The drug has also been blamed for elevating the risk of cardiac arrhythmias and heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, blood clots, kidney failure, seizures, deep vein thrombosis, hepatic adenomas and sudden death.

According to the lawsuit, 50 deaths attributed to the use of Yaz and Yasmin were reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between the first quarter of 2004 and the third quarter of 2008.

The lawsuit alleges that Bayer markets Yaz and Yasmin “as providing the same efficacy as other birth control pills in preventing pregnancy, but with additional benefits,” rather than the higher risks the drugs pose.

“The foreseeable risks of the product exceeded the benefits associated with its design or formulation. Or they were more dangerous than an ordinary consumer would expect,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages, medical expenses and economic damages, and attorney’s fees. Because Bayer ran a deceptive ad campaign for Yaz, hailing the drug for uses unapproved by the FDA while downplaying its risks, the plaintiff also seeks an unspecified amount of punitive damages.

Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/

SOURCE: Yaz Lawsuit › Chicago woman sues Bayer over Yaz-related injuries