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

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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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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A new ad format developed by Google for prescription drugs attaches a fixed link to sponsored results. When clicked, the link takes the browser to a page announcing  the drug’s side effects, risks, and other important information, much the same way as it is printed on the drug label or inside the product’s packaging. Bayer was the first company to sign up for the new format, which it now uses for its beleaguered birth control pill Yaz.

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A Chicago woman who claims she was injured as a result of taking Yaz filed a lawsuit on November 4 against Bayer in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff started using Yaz in January 2008 and, as a direct result, developed gall stones which led to the removal of her gall bladder.

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Writer-comedian Sarah Haskins has produced another segment of her popular satire on Current TV’s Target: Women, this time calling out the absurdity of television advertising in marketing drugs to women.

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A 33-year-old nurse from South Carolina has filed suit against Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, charging that Yaz caused her multiple personal injuries. According to a report published by Reuters, the woman received a Yaz prescription from her dermatologist in March 2008 as a treatment for acne.

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A new report in the New York Times about Bayer Healthcare’s bestselling oral contraceptive Yaz brings to light some serious ethical questions surrounding the company’s testing and marketing of what some studies suggest is a potentially dangerous drug for many women.

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