It appears that drug giant Bayer is going to pay out more than $1.2 billion to settle some of the blood clot lawsuits that have been filed against the company by various former Yaz users and their families.
Even with that astounding amount of money to be handed out by Bayer, the company will still have to shell out even more in settling lawsuits filed about other Yaz side effects, including gallbladder disease, heart attacks, strokes and, of course, the blood clots that can lead to pulmonary embolisms and deep vein thrombosis. Now, thanks to recent consumer complaints and research, kidney stones and irritable bowel syndrome may be next in the long list Yaz side effects to be claimed in lawsuits.
According to the most recent information from Bayer’s stockholders newsletter, the company is currently dealing with 12,325 lawsuits due to its drospirenone-based pills Yasmin and Yaz. The company is reporting that it has agreed to pay $402.6 million as an effort to settle 1,877 cases even though the company is not admitting to being liable. For the time being, Bayer is only settling pulmonary embolism and DVT cases. Of the 12,325 lawsuits against the company, Bayer’s report says that 6,000 of them are based on blood clot-related injuries.
The estimate of $1.29 billion is based on whether the drug makers decide to settle the rest of the 6,000 blood clot lawsuits for the same amount of money as the 1,877 cases. For now, Bayer is only settling blood clot cases, but could soon bend on the other side effects, too. In the lawsuits Bayer is facing in the Illinois MDL (1,400 cases in total), Judge David R. Herndon has halted the trial start date as both parties continue to negotiate a settlement agreement. Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits have become the largest pending MDL in the federal courts. All of the pending Yaz lawsuits are similar in that they claim that Bayer failed to properly warn the public and healthcare professionals of the side effects linked to Yaz.
