In the most recent Yaz lawsuit filing, five plaintiffs have banded together to sue Bayer, the company responsible for the birth control pills. The claim was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The plaintiffs include two women from Alabama (Jennifer Benefield and Cheryl Hill), two women from Florida (Melissa Wray and Rosemary Hampton) and one woman from Colorado (Cheryl Campos).
Of the plaintiffs, Benefield and Campos suffered from Yaz-related pulmonary embolisms. Wray suffered from deep vein thrombosis and Hill, Hampton and Wray had gallbladder removal surgery after taking Yaz. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs rely on previous medical studies to boost their claims that Yaz and its sister drug Yasmin caused their injuries. There are numerous studies that show that the main active ingredient in the fourth-generation pills, drospirenone, causes serious side effects which include heart attacks, strokes, gallbladder disease, kidney stones and blood clots that can lead to pulmonary embolisms as well as deep vein thrombosis.
Aside from the studies cited in the plaintiffs’ lawsuits, they are also citing Bayer’s misleading advertisements and failure to warn as their reasons for the lawsuits. Early ads for the pills promoted their off-label uses of curing acne and PMS while downplaying the drug’s side effects. All of the plaintiffs are suing amid claims of “defective design and manufacturing, inadequate warning, failure to adequately test, negligence, breach of warranties, and negligent misrepresentation.”
Even though Bayer won’t completely admit to the dangers of Yaz, the company has already lost more than $400 million to Yaz lawsuit settlements and is expected to reach even more in the future. The Yaz dangers have many experts wondering why the pills are still on the market instead of being recalled, but an FDA panel decided to keep it on the market and institute a stricter warning on the drugs label that include telling patients that the drug is likely to cause blood clots.
