A Yaz lawsuit that was filed in California on November 17 of this year is headed toward the statewide coordination of lawsuits, are of which all claiming that the controversial birth control pill causes serious adverse side effects like blood clots. The lawsuits all named Bayer, the makers of Yaz and Yasmin, as defendants.
Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl of the Superior Court of the State of California has been assigned to oversee the coordinated case management proceeding. The coordination, which had been established in September of this year, is keeping track of other similar consolidations that will be taking place in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Of these cases, all of them involve plaintiffs that want to be compensated for the injuries they suffered from after taking Yaz or Yasmin. The blood clots that these plaintiffs are complaining about can lead to conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms.
One such plaintiff is Kristen Salome, who has developed deep vein thrombosis after taking Yaz. She received her diagnosis on June 13, 2007. The deep vein thrombosis is caused by a blood clot, which is one of the more serious side effects linked to Yaz, Yasmin and other drospirenone-based birth control pills. Salome is hoping to receive compensation for the damages she has suffered due to her Yaz use, including “economic, punitive and exemplary damages.”
Salome’s lawsuit is accusing Bayer of various misdeeds when marketing and selling Yaz, including “negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, and failure to warn.” Bayer has been accused of negligent misrepresentation by other plaintiffs after the company was accused of misrepresenting Yaz’s benefits during a major marketing campaign, which claimed that Yaz was a magic cure-all for everything from acne to PMS. The FDA eventually forced Bayer to change its marketing campaign to include the serious side effects associated with Yaz and Yasmin.