August 5, 2015 — Bayer has offered nearly $57 million to settle about 1,200 lawsuits involving arterial blood clot injuries, such as heart attacks and strokes, associated with its drospirenone-containing birth control pills Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella.
Bayer has already paid about $1.97 billion to settle approximately 9,900 claims for women injured by venous blood clots, including blood clots in the legs (deep vein thrombosis) and lungs (pulmonary embolism).
Despite the settlements, Bayer still faces about 4,000 lawsuits, according to a regulatory filing issued last week. Bayer is considering settlements in about 600 of those lawsuits on a case-by-case basis.
According to Law360, the settlements also resolved a case that was set for trial in Philadelphia. The lawsuit was filed in 2009 on behalf of a woman who suffered a stroke after taking Yasmin.
In 2009, federal judges centralized lawsuits against Bayer at the federal level. Nearly 12,000 lawsuits were eventually filed in Illinois (MDL No. 2100), but only about 2,800 remain.
The lawsuits generally accuse Bayer of misleading women about the safety of drospirenone-containing birth control pills, including Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella. In 2011, the FDA warned about a 50% increased risk of blood clots. The FDA also cited Bayer for marketing the pills for “off-label” (unapproved) uses.
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