As well, Bayer has been accused of downplaying the risks associated with the IUD and aggressively over-marketing Mirena. And it’s not the first time (think Yasmin and Yaz) that the drug company has been accused of minimalizing the potential side effects of a contraceptive while maximizing the “positives,” such as ease of use in its “birth control for busy moms” campaign.Most disturbing is that doctors are buying into Bayer’s cleverly marketed target audience - teenagers. And so is some media. “New York women are parting from the pill, breaking up with the patch and saying sayonara to the sponge. And no, these aren’t women with a deep-seeded baby wish - they’ve all gotten IUDs,” quipped the New York Daily News (October 14, 2014). With the tag line “Just set it - and forget it,” it’s understandable that many uninformed young women will buy into Bayer’s Mirena marketing. But doctors flippantly condoning the IUD is disconcerting, to say the least.
Dr. Laura MacIsaac, the director of Family Planning for the Mount Sinai Health System, told the Daily News that more patients in her practice are asking for IUDs. She said that patients “are now hearing about these methods,” either through more visible marketing campaigns or through word of mouth, and here is the clincher: MacIsaac also told the Daily News that “They are being marketed and as more teens are getting them, our patients are hearing about them from their peers.” Interestingly, MacIsaac only sees teenagers in her practice.
READ MORE MIRENA IUD LEGAL NEWS
As of October 15, at least 1,042 Mirena claims are pending in the multidistrict litigation underway in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, up from 937 cases last month (In re: Mirena IUD Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2434). And about 1,100 lawsuits, all with similar complaints, have been filed in a multicounty litigation in New Jersey’s Bergen County Superior Court (In Re: Mirena Litigation; Case No. 297). Attorneys speculate those claims may just be the tip of the iceberg…