Yaz Birth Control Pill Lawsuits in Canada

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Greenberg & Bederman

Damage from Yaz birth control pills is International

At Greenberg and Bederman, we have been keeping a close eye on developments regarding Bayer’s line of Yaz birth control pills.  For those of you who have not been informed, birth control pills that have been marketed under the names of Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella have been linked to serious health complications among the women who use them.

Since Yaz and Yasmin have been on the market, there have been thousands of incidents of strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms and gall bladder disease among otherwise perfectly healthy women who have been using these pills.

What appears to be the cause of these medical complications is that when Bayer developed these pills, they chose to use as an ingredient a synthetic variation of progestin called drospirenone. This ingredient has been shown to increase the potassium levels in the bloodstreams of those who use it. When potassium levels increase substantially, this can cause blood clots to develop in the main arteries and veins in the legs. This condition is called “deep vein thrombosis.” While the clots themselves are relatively harmless, complications develop when these clots break apart and start to travel through the bloodstream. When these bits of blood clot get to the lungs, the heart or the brain, the end result can be a pulmonary embolism, a heart attack or a stroke.

 

The FDA is currently investigating these pills, which unfortunately is a process that can take months. In the meantime, there have been a slew of lawsuits filed against Bayer all over the United States, so much so to the point that many of them have been consolidated under what is called “multi-district litigation.” To understand multi-district litigation please read our article on Understanding Yaz Class Action Lawsuits. This is when tort cases that are similar in nature are essentially placed under the same ground rules in terms of evidence and witness testimony.

The premise of many of the yaz lawsuits is that not only did Bayer release and aggressively market a drug that is hazardous to women who use it, but that they did so while knowing that the use of dropserinone made it more dangerous than other birth control pills on the market. Many lawsuits are also alleging that Bayer used misleading marketing to increase sales, implying in their advertisements that Yaz could clear up all forms of acne or help women get past the negative emotional experiences of PMS.

And it isn’t just in the United States that these lawsuits are taking place. Our neighbors to the north are experiencing the same problems with Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella. There were 2 million prescriptions of Yaz and Yasmin in Canada in 2009.

In an article on CTV Edmonton, some women who have been taking these birth control pills are experiencing similar if not identical problems. One woman from Nova Scotia experienced a racing heart beat and dizziness after only taking Yaz for a short period of time. After being told by her doctors that she was essentially fine, she suffered what is called a transient ischemic attack, or a “mini stroke.” It left her paralyzed on the left side of her body and she was unable to communicate with anyone for an extended period of time.

Another woman from Halifax switched from Yasmin to Yaz due to some initial discomfort, but after 18 months on the pill she began to experience severe abdominal pains. Upon being examined by doctors, they determined that she had severe gallstones and that her gall bladder would have to be removed. The use of Yaz and gall bladder problems are not unrelated either.

 Bayer is steadfastly denying that they acted inappropriately or even that there is anything wrong with its Yaz birth control pills:

Bayer contends its oral contraceptives "have been and continue to be extensively studied worldwide and are safe and effective when used according to the product labeling."

"Bayer reaffirms and stands behind the safety of its drospirenone-containing oral contraceptives," the company said in a response to CTV News.

As for the lawsuits, Bayer said it is "in the process of gathering information on these cases, but the complaints we have reviewed so far pertain to side effects that are warned about in the labeling of all oral contraceptives, including ours. Bayer will defend itself vigorously against these lawsuits."

The judicial process in Canada is somewhat different from ours, but what we do have in common is that the Canadian courts recognize the rights of citizens to seek damages from those who are responsible for their injuries. We believe that Bayer released and aggressively marketed a pill that is dangerous to women, and that they did so with the knowledge of the risks. As a result of this, women who have been injured or hospitalized due to the use of Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella are entitled to compensation for their medical bills, pain and suffering and lost income.

Greenberg and Bederman is a Washington, D.C. based injury law firm, and we are currently offering legal assistance to women who have been injured due to the use of Bayer’s line of birth control pills. If you or a loved one in Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C. has been hospitalized due to the use of Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella, contact Greenberg and Bederman for a free legal consultation today.

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Yaz Birth Control Injury Differences

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Greenberg & Bederman

DC Area Yaz Birth Control Injury Law Firm Greenberg and Bederman is Currently Offering Legal Assistance

As many of you probably know, the Bayer Corporation is facing a series of yaz lawsuits in various American states due to problems that users of their line of birth control pills are experiencing. If you don't know about yaz health problems, please read our page on yaz history.The difference between Bayer’s pills and most other oral contraceptives on the market is that Bayer’s birth control pills (which are marketed under the names Yaz, Yasmin, and a generic version called Ocella) all contain a synthetic variation of progestin called drispirenone. While the use of drispirenone has been marketed by Bayer as having some beneficial peripheral effects such as prevention of minor acne or helping to alleviate the symptoms of pre menstrual dysphoric disorder, Bayer failed to mention in either it’s marketing campaign or the warning labels used on the medication that drispirenone raises the risk of deep vein thrombosis, or blood clots in the deep arteries and veins of the legs. These blood clots can then break apart, and the pieces can travel through the bloodstream, which can cause strokes, heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms. The use of drispirenone has also lead to a higher than normal rate of gall bladder disease.

These side effects of yaz are not merely theoretical. There have been hundreds of women who have been seriously injured and hospitalized all over the country due to clot-based injuries. Otherwise perfectly healthy women have suffered from strokes, heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms and gall bladder disease, and there have even been more than fifty deaths.

 

As a result of these injuries and deaths, over 1100 lawsuits have been filed nationwide, with many of them falling under Multi District Litigation, which is a way to place cases with similar backgrounds against the same defendant under the same ground rules. A few class action suits (in which one group of attorneys represents multiple plaintiffs under the heading of one case) have also been filed.

Bayer has, of course, vowed to fight any and all yaz lawsuits regarding their line of birth control pills, and we certainly believe them. With profits of Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella reaching $1.7 billion dollars in 2009, Bayer can afford to wage as many court battles as they see fit. Even with all the justified bad publicity, Yaz is still Bayer’s top selling product.

The Bayer Corporation has already given some clues as to what they expect their defense to be. They recently made an attempt to allow past birth control history of the plaintiff’s to be used as evidence, which was quite rightly denied. And based on public statements by Bayer, we are expecting them to center their defenses on the warning label that is currently in place on the products themselves.

Bayer will probably wear the current label as a shield against any liability, with the premise being “Look, we have a warning label on the box, and the doctors who prescribe it have their warnings as well. If you didn’t read it, we can hardly be expected to be blamed for that.”

There are a few things wrong with that premise. In the first place, the warnings weren’t mentioned very prominently in the enormous and splashy advertising campaign that Bayer used for Yaz. The focus on these ads was all about what Yaz could do for you besides keep you from getting pregnant. In the second place, while the warning on the doctor’s labels does admit that there is a risk of hyperlykemia (elevated potassium levels,) it fails to mention that drispirenone has a higher risk of causing hyperlykemia than any other progestin based oral contraceptive on the market. Since hyperlykemia is a possibility with most other pills, this warning label basically makes it seem as if Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella are no different than any other pill on the market when it comes to risk, and this is simply not true.

An equivalent here would be if a gun manufacturer was selling a pistol that has a higher tendency to fire accidentally than any other gun on the market, but since there is a slight chance that many guns on the market will fire accidentally, their particular gun is no different than the others.

When you study the injuries associated with yaz Bayer’s warning labels should produce a list of conditions that should discourage you from taking any of their drispirenone based pills:

Yaz should not be used in women who have the following:

·         Renal insufficiency

·         Hepatic dysfunction

·         Adrenal Insufficiency

·         Thrombophlebitis or thromboembolic disorders

·         A past history of deep-vein thrombophlebitis or thromboembolic disorders

·         Cerebral-vascular or coronary-artery disease (current or history)

·         Valvular heart disease with thrombogenic complications

·         Severe hypertension

·         Diabetes with vascular involvement

·         Headaches with focal neurological symptoms

·         Major surgery with prolonged immobilization

·         Known or suspected carcinoma of the breast

·         Carcinoma of the endometrium or other known or suspected estrogen-dependent neoplasia

·         Undiagnosed abnormal genital bleeding

·         Cholestatic jaundice of pregnancy or jaundice with prior Pill use

·         Known or suspected pregnancy

·         Liver tumor (benign or malignant) or active liver disease

·         Heavy smoking (≥ 15 cigarettes per day) and over age 35

·         Hypersensitivity to any component of this product

This is all well and good, but that doesn’t explain the hundreds of women who are suffering from none of these symptoms who are still being injured and hospitalized. And aside from that obvious red flag, these symptoms all more or less appear as disqualifications on the warnings for practically every other birth control pill out there. This again makes it appear that Bayer’s line of birth control pills are just the same as every other oral contraceptive, when they are in fact not, and that is one of the major reasons for all of these yaz lawsuits.

The “read the warning label” argument doesn’t carry any water unless that warning label clearly states that drispirenone increases your chances of hyperlykemia, which increase your chances of DVT, which increases your chances of heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolisms and gall bladder disease. The increased chances aren’t mentioned in a clear manner at all. Bayer did not say “Here is a birth control pill that can prevent acne and the symptoms of PMDD, but it increases the odds that you will suffer from blood clots. Take it at your own risk.” They simply said “Here is a standard, run of the mill birth control pill, except it can prevent acne and the symptoms of PMDD!”

Greenberg and Bederman is currently offering legal assistance for people in the Washington D.C. area who have been injured due to the use of Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella. Our attorneys are working diligently to help women in Virginia, Maryland and the District who have been hospitalized due to Bayer’s line of birth control pills. If you or a loved one has been injured in this manner, contact Greenberg and Bederman for a free yaz legal consultation today.

To learn more about yaz birth control, please read our yaz lawyers website page, or watch our yaz video on Youtube.

 
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Yaz Birth Control Alternatives

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Greenberg & Bederman

As we have been reporting extensively over the past few months, Bayer’s line of birth control pills has been a source of major controversy over the past year or so. The pills (which are marketed under the names Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella) first came to the attention of the general public when the Food and Drug Administration ordered Bayer to remake an advertising campaign in October of 2008. The FDA’s problem with the campaign was that it overstated the supposed side benefits of Yaz (treatment for acne and depression,) while understating the increased dangers that the special ingredient posed towards the women who used the pill.

While the FDA was having problems with the advertising, the women who were actually using the products themselves were having serious problems of their own. The new ingredient that Bayer decided to use for these birth control pills is called drospirenone, which is a synthetic variation of progestin. Along with the supposed benefits of decreased acne and an easier time with premenstrual dysphoric disorder, this ingredient has also been shown to increase the odds of deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the legs.) These blood clots have a tendency to break apart, and the pieces of the clots have a tendency to travel through the bloodstream. This can cause pulmonary embolisms, strokes and heart attacks among women who are otherwise healthy.

To be fair, there is a risk of deep vein thrombosis associated with most forms of oral contraceptives, but the problem with Bayer’s line of pills is that the drospirenone increases those odds pretty substantially. According to the British Medical Journal, there is a 6.3 fold increase of deep vein thrombosis among women who use birth control pills containing drospirenone. Bayer’s birth control pills are the only brands available that use drospirenone, so the BMJ’s study might as well just say “Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella.”

 

From here, it’s just a matter of arithmetic. A 6.3 fold increase might not seem like much, but if you consider the full on advertising blitz that Bayer put on in order to sell this drug, then it stands to reason that the number of women who take this drug without knowing about the additional risks will increase, which therefore increases the number of women who are suffering from adverse effects. And that’s been an obvious problem. Thousands of otherwise women all over the country are finding themselves hospitalized with strokes, heart attacks or pulmonary embolisms, and the only consistent factor among these women is that they have been taking Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella.

Considering the increased risk of health problems that drospirenone can bring with it, we would urge any woman considering taking an oral contraceptive to avoid Bayer’s line of birth control pills and to consider some of the many alternatives that are available on the market. While there is still a risk of blood clotting with most birth control pills that are based on hormone replacement, the risks are significantly lower with pills other than Yaz. In fact, some of the safest pills on the market are the so-called second generation pills that contain low doses of estrogen and variations on progesterone that are much safer than drospirenone.

Lybrel: This is a pill that contains a hormone called levonorgestrel, which has been shown in most studies to have the lowest risk of deep vein thrombosis (clots.)

Nordette: This is another low dose estrogen/levonorgestrel combination pill, and Nordette is in fact just one of the many brands that use this combination. And again, levonorgestrel has the lowest incident rate of deep vein thrombosis.

Seasonique: Another levonorgestrel pill, which comes with additional benefits in terms of regulation of menstruation.

The injury law firm of Greenberg and Bederman has taken an active role in the Washington, D.C. area in both warning women of the potential hazards of Bayer’s line of birth control pills and offering legal help for women who have already been injured because of them. We are currently representing women who have been hospitalized with pulmonary embolisms, strokes or heart attacks after using Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella. Thanks to recent actions by the federal courts, the process of getting your case through the legal system has been streamlined, which is making it that much easier for your case to be heard relatively quickly. Rulings have also been made that will safeguard your privacy throughout the process.

If you or a loved one in Baltimore, Maryland, Virginia or Washington, DC has been injured due to Yaz, Yasmin or Ocella, contact our yaz lawyer, Andy Bederman, for a free yaz legal consultation.
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