A Massachusetts woman named Lisa A. Moon has filed a new Yaz lawsuit on January 23, 2013, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Bayer. Moon’s lawsuit joins numerous others that are all a part of the ever-growing federal MDL.
Moon’s lawsuit states that she first started taking Yaz in April 2010 and that she suffered from some of the side effects linked to the drug. Some of the side effects that have been linked to Yaz use include heart attacks, strokes, gallbladder disease, irritable bowel syndrome, kidney stones and blood clots that can lead to pulmonary embolisms and deep vein thrombosis.
As with many Yaz lawsuits, the focus of this lawsuit is the pills’ main active ingredient, drospirenone, which is a synthetic progestin. Research has linked drospirenone to numerous conditions over and over again, but the FDA has refused to take the pills off the market. Many people believe that the reason for this is due to the panel advisory meeting conducted by the FDA. During that meeting, the panel recommended that Yaz and other drospirenone-based pills remain on the market but with stricter warnings about the drug’s links to blood clots. The results of that meeting were met with controversy after four of the members were found to have financial ties to Bayer, but the FDA listened to the recommendation anyway.
Bayer is now more outspoken about side effects linked to Yaz, Yasmin and generic versions like Ocella, but the company is still claiming that the pills are just as safe as older pills that don’t contain drospirenone. But the steady stream of lawsuits by former Yaz users and their families, as well as Bayer’s recent settlement agreements, are slowly proving that the research was correct. Bayer continues to try pushing Yaz in Europe (like the new Yaz in patch form) which is proving that the bottom line is far more important to the company than patient safety.
