Yaz Lawsuits Overwhelmed With Information

Bayer Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of the once-popular but now-controversial birth control pills marketed under the brand names Yaz and Yasmin, are protesting requests for the company to provide documents related to regulations, warnings, sales and marketing, and safety in regards to the birth control products. Plaintiffs in some of the thousands of lawsuits against the company in regards to the birth control pills are requesting this information, supposedly to help build evidence against the pharmaceutical giant. However, Bayer claims that the requests are not for evidence, but for leverage against the company.
Bayer claims to already have provided about 40 million pages of relevant documents for consideration, with an agreement to produce up to 30 million more pages as Yaz lawsuits progress through the legal system. However, the company believes that plaintiffs are requesting this information not as evidence but as leverage against the company. Yaz lawyers, however, are arguing that Bayer did not show any special burden in producing the information, and – although the company has claimed otherwise – assured the defendant that all requests would be simply for documents in English.
Judge David Herndon is handling the early bellwether trials in the case and also deals with any preliminary settlement negotiation attempts related to the case. He has expressed his frustration with the defendant, calling the pharmaceuticals giant “anything but cooperative” and pointing out the large amount of time the defendants are wasting by being stubborn in this early information-collection stage. There are more than 6,000 Yaz- and Yasmin-related lawsuits waiting for trial, all of which involve plaintiffs who have taken the medication, in branded or generic form, and have experienced side effects such as deep vein thrombosis, heart attack, stroke, gallbladder disease, pulmonary embolism, or kidney disease. Plaintiffs are hoping for a Yasmin settlement that will cover the money they have spent trying to treat their side effects.