Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-13/bayer-said-to-pay-110-million-in-yaz-birth-control-cases.html
Bayer Said to Pay $110 Million in Yaz Birth-Control Cases
By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk - Apr 13, 2012 12:01 AM ET
Bayer AG (BAYN), Germany’s largest drugmaker, will pay at least $110 million to settle about 500 lawsuits over claims that its Yasmin line of birth-control pills caused blood clots, in the first resolution of cases over the product, people familiar with the agreements said.
Officials of Bayer, based in Leverkusen, Germany, agreed to pay an average of about $220,000 a case to resolve the claims that its Yasmin and Yaz contraceptives caused sometimes fatal clots that can lead to heart attacks and strokes, two people familiar with the settlement said. The people sought anonymity because the accords haven’t been made public.
The settlements came after a federal judge in Illinois postponed a Jan. 9 trial of a suit accusing Bayer and some of its units of misleading women about the health risks of its birth-control pills so a mediator could try to negotiate a settlement. The case was the first set for trial of more than 11,000 lawsuits over injuries allegedly caused by the drugs.
“Sounds to me like mediation is paying off,” Carl Tobias, who teaches product-liability law at the University of Richmond in Virginia, said in a phone interview. “As a German company, Bayer probably would like to avoid the risks and costs of litigation in U.S. courts. Mediation tends to be a less- expensive way to deal with these kinds of cases.”
The settlements come as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration April 10 ordered Bayer and other contraceptive makers to strengthen the blood-clot warnings on their products. Pills like Bayer’s Yasmin, which contain a synthetic hormone called drospirenone, will have warning labels saying researchers have found they may triple the risk for clots.
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