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

Drug giant Bayer is not at all happy that a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief has been tapped to testify against the drug company in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) focusing on the safety of Bayer’s top-selling birth control pills, Yaz. Former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler recently submitted an expert report claiming that an FDA advisory committee vote on the pills was tainted because some members of the panel were paid consultants for Bayer and posed an obvious conflict of interest.

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The first of more than 10,000 lawsuits against Bayer over its birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin won’t go to trial this week as planned because a judge appointed a mediator in hopes of settling the case. The lawsuit accused Bayer of misleading women about the safety risks associated with its oral contraceptives.

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Lawyers for the pharmaceutical giant Bayer are overwhelmed by the “overly burdensome discovery requests” made by attorneys for the thousands of women and their family members who have filed suit against Bayer. The drug company has turned over some 40 million pages of documents related to Yaz and Yasmin’s warnings, safety, labeling and sales and market, and say they have up to 30 million more pages yet to surrender. Bayer’s attorneys have asked for a protective order to stop the mountain of paperwork, but the plaintiffs attorneys say they want all the documents as they are imperative to the lawsuit filed against the drug company.

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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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The contraceptive business has boomed since the birth control pill hit the market 50 years ago. Now birth control comes in the form of pills, patches, rings, implants and intrauterine devices, and the makers of such products claim they are even safer than before. Judging by the thousands lawsuits filed by women who claim they suffered life-threatening blood clots, strokes and gallbladder problems because of the contraceptives, safety may still be an issue. But Salon.com opinion editor Geraldine Sealey claims birth control pills brought on another, less known, side effect – the loss of her libido.

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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.

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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.

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Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits filed against Bayer Healthcare in Pennsylvania state courts were consolidated into a mass tort last week by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge Sandra Mazer Moss, who appointed 3 Pennsylvania attorneys to serve as liaison counsel for the plaintiffs.

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