According to a recent announcement made by Resource4thePeople, a significant hearing has been scheduled to take place on September 4, 2013 in the East St. Louis Courthouse in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Illinois. The hearing was scheduled by U.S. District Court Judge David R. Herndon. At issue are the controversial birth control pills Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella, made by Bayer.
“This will be an important meeting at which the judge overseeing what is called a multidistrict litigation meets with attorneys for the plaintiffs and those representing the manufacturers of Yaz and Yasmin to discuss the progress of these lawsuits,” said Resource4thePeople. “The court docket shows that cases are continually being added and dismissed as new cases are filed and older cases are settled or otherwise adjudicated over the issue of whether these contraceptives caused women to suffer serious blood clotting problems.”
Bayer’s fourth-generation birth control pills Yaz, Yasmin and the generic version, Ocella, have been the subject of thousands of lawsuits after users reported suffering from various side effects including: heart attacks, strokes, gallbladder disease and blood clot-related injuries like pulmonary embolisms and deep vein thrombosis. Bayer has been negotiating settlements that have topped $1.4 billion in payouts so far, and more are expected to happen in the near future. In fact, the company is expected to lose as much as $2 billion or more before these lawsuits are put to rest. This is significant since the company set aside an initial $1 billion to cover potential lawsuits, yet experts say that amount could easily double.
