Bayer Facing Thousands of Individual Lawsuits over Contraceptive

Bayer currently faces about 7,000 Yaz lawsuits. Although the cases have been consolidated and centralized for pretrial proceedings as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, each claim remains and individual lawsuit and each plaintiff must meet the burden of proof in establishing that their injuries were caused by the use of the birth control pill. If a Yaz settlement agreement is not reached in the litigation, each of the plaintiffs will have the opportunity to present their claim to a jury. Bayer agreed to stop that particular ad campaign and they agreed to conduct a new, $20 million "corrective" marketing campaign with new commercials and print advertisements that clarified that Yaz birth control pill does not treat mild acne or help keep your skin clear or cure the symptoms of PMS (premenstrual syndrome.


Judge David R. Herndon issued an opinion on May 4, denying a request to certify a national class action for users injured by Yaz birth control and striking class action allegations. The class action was requested by a Louisiana woman who claims to have suffered a Yaz deep vein thrombosis. Bayer moved to have the class action claims thrown out in December, arguing that plaintiffs’ claims against Yaz, and a similar oral contraceptive known as Yasmin, involve individualized questions of fact that cannot be addressed by a class action lawsuit.

While Bayer claims it has produced more than 10 million pages for the women suing, the quality of these documents has created controversy for the litigation. Yaz lawyers have expressed frustration over the pages they have received having search malfunctions, being out of order, miscoded and therefore illegible. Bayer currently faces about 7,000 lawsuits over Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills. Although the cases have been consolidated and centralized for pretrial proceedings as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, each claim remains and individual lawsuit and each plaintiff must meet the burden of proof in establishing that their injuries were caused by the use of the birth control pill.