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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Missing data from clinical trials that test the safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs “distorts scientific record” and puts patients lives in danger, the British Medical Journal warns. The medical publication, which serves as a resource for policy makers and doctors, released several papers looking into the problem of unpublished trial data. One study from Yale University found that fewer than half of the 635 National Institutes of Health-funded trials were published in peer-reviewed medical journals within 30 months of trial completion. This includes experimental drugs as well as those already licensed on the market.

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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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A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel said Friday that the Ortho Evra birth control patch, made by Johnson & Johnson, should remain on the market despite an elevated risk for blood clots. The panel voted 19-5 in favor of patch as an alternative contraceptive for women who are unable to take a daily birth control pill.

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Stronger warnings on packages of a newer class of birth control pills and government ruling to restrict the availability of the morning-after pill may make women leery of birth control in general, which could increase the rate of unwanted pregnancies or abortions, some advocacy groups warn.

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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?

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A new study backs up concerns of previous studies that show birth control pills containing the hormone drospirenone, such as Yaz and Yasmin, are more likely to cause deadly blood clots than oral contraceptives made with older generation hormones.

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Yaz, and other birth control pills made with the hormone drospirenone, have been shown in studies to put women at greater risk for developing deadly blood clots, yet generic versions of the drug are still being approved for sale in the United States. Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. has just been granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Vestura, its generic version of Bayer’s Yaz.

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Bayer didn’t want anyone to find out its top-selling birth control pill Yasmin could be more dangerous than older oral contraceptives, and even went so far as to promote the pill for uses for which it had not been approved, according to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report unsealed in federal court last week.

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Women who recently gave birth and are older than 34 or who have had a C-section should not take oral contraceptives that contain estrogen, according to researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Studies show the pills could increase the risk of older women developing blood clots if taken within six weeks after delivering a baby. Blood clots, if they travel to the brain or lungs, can cause strokes, respiratory problems, and even death. All new mothers, regardless of age, are also advised not to take estrogen-containing oral contraceptives in the first three weeks following delivery.

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