Drug company ‘check lists’ influence patient choice
How ethical is it for pharmaceutical companies to target consumers with advertising for their prescription drugs?
News Tagged ‘PMS’
Combined birth control pills provide limited PMS pain improvement
Combined birth control pills can help reduce the pain of menstrual cramps, but not much, according to a Swedish longitudinal study.
Birth control called ‘secondary cause of death’ in young woman taking Yaz
It was mere hours after Rebecca Bapp called her parents to say that she wasn’t feeling well that the 21-year-old was dead. Mysteriously, her health declined so rapidly even doctors were baffled by what was making her so ill. Not long after her parents rushed her to the hospital, she was placed on a breathing machine and sedated. She coded three times before she gave up her fight for life.
Why would FDA panel not ban Yaz over blood clot risk?
Why did an advisory panel of experts for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not vote to ban the popular birth control pill Yaz and other pills of its generation containing the hormone drospirenone, instead opting to recommend that the pills carry a stronger warning for life-threatening blood clots?
FDA panel recommends stricter blood clot warnings on Yaz
Packs of Yaz and other birth control pills containing the hormone drospirenone should be updated to include a warning that the pills may be more likely to cause life threatening blood clots than older oral contraceptives, according to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel. The expert board was charged by the FDA with reviewing new data on the safety of the pills and recommending what action the federal agency should take.
Bayer dismisses new studies showing higher blood clot risk with Yaz, Yasmin
Bayer isn’t backing down. The pharmaceutical giant that is making billions off sales of it’s popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, says two new studies that suggest the company’s oral contraceptives put women at greater risk for blood clots than older generation pills, are flawed.
Alert your friends to the dangers of Yaz, Yasmin
When Yaz and Yasmin hit the market, they were touted to be different than other birth control pills because they could curb the annoying symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and even clear up unsightly acne. The marketing campaign worked quite well for Bayer HealthCare. The pills became the No. 1 selling oral contraceptives in the United States, with many of its users being young women and teenagers who asked their doctors for the pills by name.
But the honeymoon would soon end for Bayer, as reports of potentially fatal side effects from Yaz and Yasmin began to surface. Bayer was also slapped by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with fines and ordered to spend millions on new ads to clarify its benefits (for example, the pills are approved for the treatment of premenstrual dysphoric disorder, PMDD, and not PMS) and clearly state the risk for side effects such as blood clots.
Parody of BCP commercials does not diminish safety concerns
Sarah Haskins of Target Women, a recurring segment on Current TV’s weekly television show, infoMania, is known to some for her take on the often-ridiculous way the media reaches out to women. In this episode she tackles birth control commercials from Seasonique, Yaz and NuvaRing.
Mother warns others of the dangers of Yaz
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.
Southern Illinois district court to handle Yaz lawsuits
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.