Bayer Sued Over Safety of Popular Birth Control Pills

Quoted from http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202432225980

Bayer Sued Over Safety of Popular Birth Control Pills

Tresa Baldas
The National Law Journal
July 14, 2009

First came the warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; now it's lawsuits.

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals has been hit with four individual federal lawsuits -- three in Ohio, one in Wisconsin -- involving the safety of its popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin. And plaintiffs lawyers vow that plenty more are in the pipeline.

The back-to-back lawsuits -- which were filed on July 7, 9 and 10 -- come after Bayer reached an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration in 2008 to run a $20 million corrective ad campaign for overstating the benefits of Yaz and downplaying its risks. The FDA had issued Bayer a warning letter about the ads, noting that Yaz actually has additional risks compared to other birth control pills because it contains the progestin drospirenone, which can increase potassium levels.

Plaintiffs lawyers say the FDA letter will serve as handy evidence in their lawsuits, which allege that Bayer failed to warn women and their doctors of the pills' increased risk of injury -- most notably blood clots -- while overpromoting the benefits of the drugs.

[Article continues at original source]

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UPDATE:   Visit the YAZ, Yasmin, and Ocella Information page at our Drug Injury Law web site for more recent developments regarding personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits that involve YAZ, Yasmin, and Ocella.  (8/1/09)
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