New Yaz Lawsuit in MDL

Yaz became the top selling birth control pill in the United States, with $1.58 billion in sales in 2010 alone. Bayer issued a statement saying that while it continues to defend the litigation, the company is engaged in mediation and settlement discussion. Laura Tenorio’s Yaz Lawsuit has been removed from the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, to the current multidistrict litigation (MDL) taking place in where bellwether trials have been postponed in favor of mediation. The first Yaz trial was expected to begin on January 9, involving a plaintiff who suffered a pulmonary embolism after taking the birth control pill. In an order issued December 31, Judge Herndon indefinitely continued the start of that case and ordered the parties to engage in Yaz settlement negotiations.

Over 10,000 women have filed a lawsuit against Bayer alleging that they suffered injuries as a result of the drug maker’s failure to adequately warn about the side effects of Yaz, Yasmin and other drosperinone-based birth control pills made by Bayer. The FDA recently released a report that suggested drospirenone-based birth control pills may increase the risk of blood clots by 75% over older birth control pills. They also doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes in users who were new to birth control, with some health problems appearing in less than three months after women started to take the pills. Individuals who have pre-existing kidney, liver and adrenal disease could be particularly susceptible to Yaz side effects.

Blood clots are potentially life-threatening conditions. They can break free and travel through the bloodstream and lodge in the heart and cause heart attacks, in the brain and trigger a stroke, or in the lungs which can cause apulmonary embolism. Thousands of women allege that Bayer did not adequately warn them that taking Yaz or Yasmin could be deadly. All federal Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits have been consolidated as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, which is centralized before Judge Herndon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.