Yaz & Yasmin Lawyers & Settlements

Dangerous Drugs Blog Redesigned

For more on Yaz lawyers and lawsuits, you can also visit Dangerous Drugs, the main blog I publish relating to dangerous and defective drugs and devices.  That site has additional coverage of Yaz.

Over 13,000 Women Make Claims Against Maker of Yaz

PR Newswire reported on August 2nd that there are 13,530 women with claims pending against Bayer over side effects of the drug Yaz.  This number is higher than the often-reported number of 12,000 Yaz lawsuits pending against Bayer.  That’s because not every woman who is seeking a settlement from Bayer has filed a lawsuit against the company.

Lawyers representing women injured by Yaz can sometimes seek a settlement without having to file a lawsuit.  One reason that is so in these cases is because Bayer is aggressively settling with women who developed a blood clot while using Yaz.  Because Bayer is so interested in settling those cases, it can choose to settle with a woman before she files a lawsuit.  There are advantages and disadvantages to seeking a settlement prior to filing a lawsuit. We’re happy to explain what those advantages and disadvantages are – just give us a call or contact us with the form on the right.

Bayer’s Earnings Suffer Due to Yaz Lawsuits

The Associated Press reported yesterday that Bayer’s earnings were 33% lower than last year because of charges associated with Yaz lawsuits.  That’s because Bayer had to set aside over $600 million dollars to cover payouts in Yaz lawsuits now and in the future.

The good news for investors is that despite a$600 million hit, Bayer’s revenues rose by 10% and it raised its outlook for the full year.  Yaz has been a very profitable drug for Bayer, due in no small part to the aggressive advertising campaign the company launched and then had to modify due to oversight by the FDA.

Although the total amount of Yaz settlements will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars – perhaps even over $1 billion – the company can still look at the settlements as nothing more than the cost of doing business.  That’s a shame considering how many young women have had their lives destroyed because they were seriously injured while taking Yaz.

Yaz Lawsuit Settlements Exceed $400 Million to Date

Pharmagossip reported today that “settlements of U.S. lawsuits claiming that its Yasmin line of birth-control pills caused blood clots in women have increased to more than $402 million.”  The actual figure is $402.6 million dollars, and the average settlement value has been $212,000 per case. 

Even bigger news is that Bayer has set aside over $610 million dollars to handle settlements of these cases.  Bayer expects the number of lawsuits over Yaz to grow, and it obviously expects to continue making settlements in these cases.  No one knows the total amount Bayer will pay to settle these cases, but stock analyst Richard Vosser of JPMorgan Chase & Co has “said Bayer may be forced to pay more than 2 billion euros to resolve all the cases over the contraceptives.”  Bayer has only set aside not-quite 500 million euros, so that would be a fourfold increase in the amount Bayer expects to pay.

Right now Bayer is only settling those cases in which a woman suffered a Yaz side effect related to blood clots, such as a pulmonary embolism or a DVT.  At this time, Bayer is not settling cases for women who suffered kidney damage while using Yaz.

Yaz Settlements Top $142 Million Dollars

In its Stockholders’ Newsletter for the first quarter of 2012, Bayer reports that it has resolved 651 Yaz lawsuits for a total of $142 million, which averages $218,000 per settlement.  No one knows the total liability Bayer will face from Yaz lawsuits, but some analysts have speculated it will top $2 billion dollars.

The reason Bayer is choosing to settle so many cases is because it has some semblance of control over the process, as opposed to a jury trial, in which Bayer has no control over what a jury will do.  Sometimes predictability is so important to a company that it will settle cases it believes it could win.  And of course, sometimes a company is desperate to settle cases it knows it will lose.  There’s no way to tell which is the case with Bayer and Yaz, but the fact that Yaz settlements are occurring is good news to the thousands of women who were injured while taking the drug.

This news comes just weeks after the FDA ordered Bayer to strengthen the warnings on Yaz regarding the risk of developing serious blood clots while using the products.

Bayer to pay 110 million to settle 500 yaz lawsuits

The pharmaceutical industry website FiercePharma reported on April 13th that Bayer will pay roughly $110 million to settle 500 Yaz lawsuits.  That works out to an average settlement of $220,000 per case.  To put those numbers in perspective, Yaz and Yasmin together are Bayer’s second-highest-grossing drugs, with 2010 revenue of $1.58 billion.

The settlements in this article are only for women who developed blood clots while taking Yaz.  Although there is evidence that Yaz can also cause gall bladder problems, Bayer is not settling those cases at this time.  Instead, they are settling clotting cases.  Perhaps not coincidentally, these settlements come not long after new studies show that Yaz and Yasmin increase the risk of developing blood clots.

As of February, Bayer had only entered into about 70 Yaz settlement agreements.  To jump from 70 to 500 clearly shows Bayer wants to resolve these cases.

Health Canada Finds increases risk of blood clots to yaz users

On December 6th, The Hamilton Spectator published “Birth Control Pills Linked to Blood Clot Risk.”  That article states that Health Canada (the government agency in charge of Canadian healthcare” found that “the risk of blood clots in women taking Yasmin and Yaz is between 1.5 and three times higher than other birth control pills.”

The labels for Yaz and Yasmin in Canada have been updated to reflect the increased risk.  Health Canada investigated the review after new studies showed an association between Yaz and Yasmin usage and injuries such as DVT’s and pulmonary embolism.

I had one Canadian Yaz user contact me recently to ask if I could help  handle her Yaz lawsuit.  Unfortunately, my firm can only help individuals who are U.S. citizens or who were injured by a prescription of Yaz obtained in the U.S.

Blisstree reports on fDA scrutiny of Yaz

The website Blisstree published “Three Years Later, The FDA Revisits Concern Over The Safety Of Yaz” on December 5th.  The article discusses the marketing methodology of Bayer and the forthcoming review of Yaz by the FDA:

Yaz gained popularity, mostly because it was aggressively marketed, boasting that it could not only keep you from getting pregnant, but also that it could also clear up your skin, and came with fewer side-effects than other drugs. Unfortunately, Yaz and similar pills, which contain an ingredient called drospirenone, quickly became something
of a birth control pariah when young, healthy women began developing blood clots. Researchers immediately began studying the safety of the pill...a process which takes a painfully long time.

The results of that research have shown that Yaz and Yasmin are indeed associated with a higher risk of blood clots and associated complications than competing birth control pills.  The overall conclusion of the article is that it’s a good thing that the FDA is reexamining the safety of Yaz, even if that reexamination is long overdue.  I couldn’t agree more.

Jezebel Asks If Yaz Is Riskier Than Other Birth Control Pills

On September 26th of 2009, the popular website Jezebel ran "Is Yaz Riskier Than Other Birth Control Pills," an article that examines the building number of Yaz lawsuits.  The article notes that 74 lawsuits have been filed by women who claim that Yaz puts them at a "higher risk for blood clots, strokes, and other health problems than some other birth control pills do."

The usually-light-hearted web site comments on a major problem with direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs:

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of all of this is the general lack of information that seems to be given out along side birth control pills; they're advertised like lip gloss or mascara, a fun little accessory to throw in your purse, as opposed to a medication that does carry many risks and should be treated as such. This is a problem that extends to all ads for medication; the consumer is told to go to the doctor and demand a certain brand name, without even knowing, exactly, what the medication really does to the body. Someone always does a voice over about diarrhea and blood clots and death, but all the audience seems to pick up on are the scenes of horses frolicking or women laughing or couples holding hands in the sun.

If Yaz truly is riskier than other birth control pills, Bayer will be flooded with Yaz lawsuits on behalf of women who believe they were mislead into taking an unsafe pill.

Bayer To Spend $20 Million To Settle Yaz Lawsuit

The February 12th, 2009 edition of Pharma Marketletter reports that Bayer will spend $20 million dollars on an advertising campaign to settle a lawsuit brought by 27 states.  The Yaz lawsuit alleged that Bayer was illegally promoting the use of Yaz to treat conditions the FDA had not approved Yaz for.  The $20 million dollars will be used to launch an ad campaign in which the old advertisements will be retracted.