Janel Mahon, a Massachusetts resident, filed a Yaz lawsuit on May 15, 2012. Her complaint listed Bayer, the makers of Yaz, as the defendant in the case, which will be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.
Mahon’s complaint states that she started taking Yaz in November 2006. By 2009, she had developed blood clots that eventually led to a diagnosis of a pulmonary embolism on December 14, 2009. Yaz is a fourth generation birth control pill whose main active ingredient is drospirenone, which is a synthetic progestin. In the drug’s original ad campaign, the drospirenone was credited with helping to cure acne and PMDD. Both of those uses are considered off-label in that Yaz is not FDA approved for those purposes.
Drospirenone has been linked to various conditions, including heart attacks, strokes, gallbladder disease and blood clots that can lead to pulmonary embolisms and deep vein thrombosis. Those side effects have caused numerous former users of the pills to file thousands of lawsuits against the manufacturers of Yaz. Most of the lawsuits claim that Bayer failed to properly warn them of the dangerous side effects linked to Yaz, Yasmin and other drospirenone-based pills.
Mahon’s lawsuit claims that Bayer knew, or should have known, before December 2009 how dangerous Yaz was. However, she alleges that the company still refused to provide proper warning of the dangers to consumers and healthcare professionals. Mahon insists that had she known what the side effects were, she would not have taken the pills. This is particularly true with the blood clots that led to her pulmonary embolisms, which can be deadly. Mahon’s lawsuit is accusing Bayer of “strict product liability, defective manufacturing, design defect, inadequate warning, negligence, breach of express and implied warranties and fraud and deceit.”
