Sales of Bayer Healthcare's controversial birth control pills, Yaz and Yasmin – the first oral contraceptives on the U.S. market to contain drospirenone (DRSP) – earned the drug manufacturer $1.8 billion in 2008. However, thousands of women have suffered pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), heart attacks, strokes, gallbladder disease and other serious medical issues.
Yaz / Yasmin sales reached $1.8B in 2008
Sales of Bayer's Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills reached a whopping $1.8 billion in 2008. That's billion with “B.” However, the numerous ads used by the company to lure women away from other types and brands of birth control were misleading; one such video made it seem as though women can rid themselves of premenstrual symptoms that arise during their period and avoid acne at the same time.
Notice that the commercial plays the song, “Goodbye to you” throughout – giving women the impression that their PMS (premenstrual syndrome) will simply go away with Yaz / Yasmin use. That, along with other misleading claims, caused the company to spend $20 million to change those ads in a government settlement. That may sound impressive, but $20 million is a tiny fraction of Bayer's $1.8 billion in sales. Consumer advocates, plaintiffs' lawyers and injured Yaz and Yasmin victims say that Bayer failed to warn them about the risks of using the drugs – and those victims are now filing lawsuits by droves.
Yaz / Yasmin lawsuits being filed by droves
Hundreds of lawsuits have been already been filed against Bayer over Yaz and Yasmin injuries and Yaz and Yasmin lawyers expect nearly 1,000 to be filed by next year. The lawsuits generally allege that, in addition to misleading consumers, Bayer failed to adequately warn consumers about the dangers of the oral contraceptives' ingredient DRSP and its links to pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), heart attacks, strokes, gallbladder disease and other serious medical issues . Approximately 50 deaths have been reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – one of the victims was only 17 years old.
Yaz and Yasmin lawyers point to studies published in the British Medical Journal and by Danish researchers showing that using Yaz and Yasmin significantly increased the risks of blood clotting. News agencies have also reported that authorities in Switzerland have attributed the death of a young woman on Bayer's Yaz after she took the drug for only ten months. Bayer points to a European study which shows that the drugs are safe; however, that study was funded by Bayer itself.
The FDA warned Bayer about misleading advertising and manufacturing processes. Four times already. While Bayer denies that the safety of the drugs released for sale in the U.S. were compromised, the drug maker has done little to warn the public about Yaz and Yasmin's side effects. However, consumer advocates say that Bayer's credibility is certainly at issue here after it was recently accused of continuing to sell Trasylol, a drug used during heart surgery to prevent bleeding, even after it knew that the drug may have been attributed to thousands of deaths.