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

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel member who voted to keep the birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin on the market despite studies that showed the pills put women at greater risk for deadly blood clots was praised by the drugs’ maker Bayer in a 2008 report saying, “She will be well utilized.” The adviser, Paula Hillard, M.D., with Stanford’s School of Medicine, is listed on the medical school’s website as a paid consultant receiving $5,000 or more annually from a division of Bayer.

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A consumer watchdog group is calling for a revote by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel, after discovering that some members of the panel had ties to drug companies that made the pills under review.

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When Dr. Sidney Wolfe was asked in 2009 by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to join the agency’s Risk Management Advisory Committee for a 4-year term, the head of the Washington, DC-based watchdog group Public Citizen took the task to heart. He championed the removal of the longstanding painkiller Darvocet/Darvon, calling the drug “extremely dangerous” based on reports of more than 2,000 accidental deaths since 1981. He also pushed for stronger warnings on prescription drugs, including the type 2 diabetes drug Avandia, which has been linked to fatal heart attacks.

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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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For centuries, nuns have been at greater risk for developing breast, ovarian and uterine cancers – diseases that are more common in women who do not have children. But a new study published in The Lancet suggests nuns could greatly reduce their risk of these deadly cancers if they started taking birth control pills.

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The recent recommendations from a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee about safety concerns with contraceptives may make women more leery when deciding which birth control is best for them. But even for women who are currently on birth control, understanding the risks is vital.

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Bayer has lost European patent protection for birth control pill Yasmin, opening the door for generic competition of its second-best selling drug product. Yasmin and its sister oral contraceptives fell from being Bayer’s top selling drug after it lost the United States patent protection.

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The family of a 15-year-old North Carolina girl who was taking the birth control pill Yasmin to treat her acne and then died of a pulmonary embolism, are suing the drug’s maker Bayer, claiming the company did not adequately warn users of the potentially deadly health risks associated with its oral contraceptive.

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Two new studies showing an increased risk in venous thromboembolism (VTE), or blood clots in the lungs, in women who use Yaz birth control pills and oral contraceptives with similar hormone formulations, has resulted in a special drug safety notification from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Yaz, made by Bayer, contains the progestin drospirenone. The same hormone is used in Bayer’s Yasmin, Beyaz and Safyral, as well as generics such as Ocella, Gianvi, Loryna, Syeda, and Zarah.

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Tennis star Serena Williams has been sidelined because of pulmonary embolisms, or blood clots in the arteries of the lungs. Often, pulmonary embolisms are caused by blood clots that originate in the legs and then travel up to the lungs. This type of blood clots are known as deep vein thrombosis, or DVTs.

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