Yaz Bellwether Trials on Hold for Mediation

The preliminary bellwether trials for Yaz side effects were scheduled to begin on January 9, 2012, but they have been put on hold as thousands of Yaz side effects lawsuits have been ordered into mediation by Chief Judge David R. Herndon, who is presiding over the Yaz multidistrict litigation case. The order came down on the 31st of December, 2011, and now instead of each lawsuit going to trial they will now pursue settlements through mediation. 

The move was echoed the consolidated Pennsylvania state court side effects lawsuits, as Judge Sandra Mazer Moss ordered the parties into mediation on the 6th of January, 2012. Yaz side effects lawsuits, which deal with such serious conditions as Yaz pulmonary embolism, Yaz blood clot, and Yaz stroke, will be put on hold as the possibility of a global settlement is explored involving thousands of plaintiffs and the defendant, Bayer pharmaceuticals. 

Professor Stephen Saltzburg of the George Washington School of Law has been selected by both Judge Herndon and Judge Moss to act as special master for the Yaz lawsuit mediation. The professor is an experienced mediator and will help guide the mediation process. He has successfully fostered settlements between drug makers and those affected by drug side effects before, most notably when he helped resolve 26,000 side effects claims against the drug making company AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca agreed to settle for more than $600 million in the case, a significant success, and many hope that the results in Yaz cases are similar.

Although in some cases when cases are put on hold for mediation a deadline is put in place for when the mediation must be decided or stop, but the Yaz side effects mediation has no deadline. Judge Herndon still has the power to reinstate the cases if the mediation does not seem to be going effectively, however, and whether this will happen or whether a settlement will be agreed upon remains to be seen. 

The Food and Drug Administration has recently warned that patients taking Yaz and Yasmin, two similar drospirenone birth control drugs manufactured by Bayer, were 74 percent more likely to experience blood clots and blood clot complications than women taking other low-estrogen hormonal contraceptives. This evidence will likely be cited in a number of upcoming Yaz and Yasmin mediation cases.