Jun 5, 2012 | 1 min read

Bayer Settling Yaz Lawsuits

There have been nearly 12,000 cases filed for injuries from the birth control pill Yaz, and Bayer has begun settling hundreds of these cases. So far, Bayer has settled 651 cases for a total of $142 million, or an average of approximately $218,000 per case. According to an analyst at JP Morgan Chase, Bayer could pay some $2.65 billion to settle the remaining lawsuits.

Earlier this year, Judge David Herndon pushed back bellwether trials to allow Bayer to mediate claims with thousands of injured women.

The dangerous ingredient in Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella is drospirenone, a synthetic (artificial) hormone that has been linked to blood clotting disorders and gallbladder disease. Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella and their generic-brand counterparts (including Beyaz and Vestura) combine estrogen with the synthetic progestin Drospirenone. No other oral contraceptive (or birth control pill) contains Drospirenone.

Drospirenone has been linked to serious side effects including blood clots, heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). In a recently released FDA funded study that compared several different types of oral contraceptives, those that contain drospirenone were shown to increase blood clot risks by 75%.

Bayer continues to market and sell these dangerous birth control products despite the known risks. In 2010 alone Bayer made a $1.6 billion profit. It is time for Bayer to stop putting profits over safety. It is time for Bayer to pull these dangerous drugs from the market and to compensate the young women whose lives they have ruined.

[More on Yaz Litigation and Settlement]

Yaz Lawsuits Move Toward Mediation Settlement Possibility [Injury Board]
Contraceptive Poses Same Problems as Predecessors? [The Safety Report]

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Brett Emison

Brett Emison is currently a partner at Langdon & Emison, a firm dedicated to helping injured victims across the country from their primary office near Kansas City. Mainly focusing on catastrophic injury and death cases as well as complex mass tort and dangerous drug cases, Mr. Emison often deals with automotive defects, automobile crashes, railroad crossing accidents (train accidents), trucking accidents, dangerous and defective drugs, defective medical devices.