Yasmin / Yaz MDL Sent to Southern District of Illinois

Yesterday, the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation found that the 32 pending federal actions, (almost half of which were filed by Zoll, Kranz & Borgess, LLC), “involve common questions of fact, and that centralization under Section 1407 in the Southern District of Illinois will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of this litigation.” Judge David R. Herndon is assigned to the litigation.

Given the large number of women who have suffered injuries as a result of Yasmin and Yaz, including, but not limited to strokes, heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE) and sudden death, we expect that thousands of more lawsuits will be filed. We will continue to be involved at a leadership level with both the Yasmin/Yaz MDL and the state court action(s). For more information, please feel free to contact us through the following link.  Milavetz Contact Us.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Swiss Investigate Death of Young Woman

According to a recent article in Reuters, Yaz is suspected to be the cause of the death of a young woman in Switzerland, causing Swiss medical authorities to continue with their investigation into the drug and its predecessor, Yasmin. The woman suffered a blood clot 10 months after being prescribed Yaz.

The article also reported that there have been at least nine deaths in Switzerland since 1990 that have been connected with oral contraceptives, according to Swissmedic. The authority said it began investigating all birth control pills after a 16-year-old was disabled by a lung embolism in May after taking Yaz.

To read a copy of the Reuters article, click here.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Recent Articles Shed Light on Dangers of Yasmin and Yaz

On Saturday, the New York Times reported on the serious and potentially deadly health risks associated with Yasmin and Yaz. There is and has been solid evidence that these oral contraceptives are unsafe options, that the advertisements used by Bayer to promote Yasmin/Yaz intentionally obscured the serious health risks, and that the manufacturing plants producing Yasmin/Yaz are not even properly producing the drugs in accordance with U.S. current good manufacturing practices!

You can read the New York Times story by clicking here.

There was also a posting this weekend on the Human Rights-World Affairs Blog Network that is worth reading. The article by Jessica Corsi discusses how drug companies’ greed for profit and lies about safety despite contrary scientific evidence, result in women being exposed to unnecessary health risks.

The article titled, “Yaz Birth Control Controversy: Pharmaceutical Profits, Unnecessary Risks, and the Gendered Distribution of Family Planning” is available by clicking here.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Judge Moss consolidates Yaz / Yasmin cases

At the conference Judge Moss announced that she was accepting the Yaz / Yasmin cases as Mass Tort cases and consolidating them for purposes of pretrial management. The appropriate orders were issued. Bayer's attorneys announced that there were 77 cases filed to date, 14 of which are pending before Judge Moss.

The Parties are hopeful that the JPML Court will approve a venue that will permit close coordination between the State and Federal Courts.

In the meantime we continue to be surprised by the number of women who have suffered needless injury or death while on Yaz / Yasmin or Ocella. (Ocella is the generic equivalent and is actually made by Bayer).

We will keep you posted. If you have not yet retained legal counsel and suffered serious injury from Yaz I encourage you to immediately contact Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A. to review your case.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Yaz, Yasmin Manufacturer Warned Yet Again by FDA

After repeated warnings by the FDA to Bayer and its predecessor Berlex for marketing its birth control drugs, Yaz and Yasmin in a way that overstates the drugs’ benefits and minimizes the very serious and potentially deadly side effects, the drug manufacturer is being warned yet again. This time, however, the problems concern the testing and quality of the pharmaceutical ingredients used its drugs, including Yaz and Yasmin.

In a letter released on Tuesday, the FDA warned Bayer about the testing and quality of pharmaceutical ingredients made at its Germany facility that are used in U.S. drugs, including the key ingredient in Yasmin and Yaz, called drospirenone. (See 9/15/09 “FDA Warns Yaz, Yasmin Manufacturer over Testing Problems” by Matthew Perrone, AP Business Writer.)

The letter followed a March 2009 inspection of the company’s plant in Berghamen, Germany, that “revealed significant deviations from U.S. current good manufacturing practices (CGMP) in the manufacture of non-sterile APls [Active pharmaceutical ingredients].”

The FDA gave Bayer 30 days to respond to the warning and advised that “failure to correct these deficiencies may result in FDA denying entry of articles manufactured by your firm into the United States.”
To view a copy of this warning letter, click here.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Yaz, Yasmin: Deep Vein Thrombosis, Pulmonary Embolism and Stroke: What's the Difference

As previously discussed on our website, the life threatening injuries associated with the use of Yasmin, Yaz, and Ocella include, but are not limited to, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), strokes, gallbladder disease, hepatic adenomas or benign liver tumors, and other serious injuries and sudden death.