The newest Yaz lawsuit, which was filed on April 10, 2012 by Susan and Stewart Lundstrom, is blaming an old marketing campaign for Susan’s deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Illinois.
What is under scrutiny in the Lundstrum lawsuit is Bayer’s marketing campaign for the oral contraceptives. Earlier marketing efforts for Yaz came under fire when the ads focused on the off-label uses of the pills while downplaying the risks. The FDA eventually forced Bayer to include the serious side effects linked to Yaz (blood clots, heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolisms and gallbladder disease), but it wasn’t done before many women started taking the pills. Off-label uses that were promoted by Bayer in the ads included acne and PMDD.
Like other lawsuits against Bayer over Yaz and Yasmin, the Lundstrums are accusing the company of negligent and careless marketing practices that they believe Bayer either did or should have known about. The source of all of this danger lies in the pills’ main active ingredient, drospirenone, which is a synthetic progestin. On top of all this, blood clots caused by Yaz have been the source of much controversy lately after an FDA panel advisory meeting voted to keep Yaz and Yasmin on the shelves in favor of stronger warnings on the drug’s labels instead. That decision originally met with a good deal of heat after it was discovered that four of the panel members had financial ties to Bayer. However, the FDA upheld the panel’s recommendation.
One thing that may help plaintiffs in these Yaz lawsuits is that Bayer recently agreed to a $110 million settlement, which covers about 500 lawsuits. This move just goes to show that the company may be acknowledging some sort of guilt in how they failed to properly warn patients about the blood clot dangers linked to Yaz. While this settlement may not be repeated by the drug giant, it certainly gives new and current plaintiffs hope that they will receive compensation for their injuries.
