Over 10,000 women have filed a Yasmin lawsuit against Bayer claiming the drugmaker failied to adequately warn about the Yasmin side effects. Although Bayer has settled many claims, attorneys are still accepting Yasmin complaints.
Although court records indicate the number of Yaz cases still pending declined over one percent for the month of April, from 9,550 on March 13 to 9,426 on April 15, April was still a busy month for Yasmin litigation.
As of April 8, Bayer has spent $1.74 billion to settle around 8,560 Yasmin/Yaz lawsuits alleging blood clot injuries, particularly pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and they are continuing to evaluate more cases for settlement.
A Chicago jury awarded Mariola Zapalski $14 million in her lawsuit against her doctor who advised her to take Yasmin. Zapalski suffered a stroke that caused permanent brain injury and paralysis.
Due to the increased number of Yasmin/Yaz lawsuits filed, cases have been
consolidated in a multidistrict litigation: Yasmin and Yaz (Drospirenone) Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2100, Southern District Illinois).
In St. Clair County, six plaintiffs and 121 out-of-state plaintiffs have filed suit claiming Yasmin/Yaz injury. One Illinois plaintiff, Iris Colon, filed suit on April 1 against Bayer Corp., Bayer Healthcare LLC, and Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc., citing strict product liability, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, fraud, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, express warranty and implied warranty.
The plaintiffs allege they suffered cardiothrombotic injury after taking the drospirenone birth control pill. Further, the defendants used deceptive and misleading advertising to promote the dangerous drug and failed to indicate additional risks present from drospirenone. The defendants either knew or should have known of the increased risks of Yaz/Yasmin and failed to warn consumers, according to court documents. The plaintiffs are each seeking more than $50,000 in damages (St. Clair County Circuit Court case number 14-L-250).
Bayer reported in its financial third quarter the following:
“As of October 18, 2013, Bayer had reached agreements, without admission of liability, to settle the claims of approximately 7,660 claimants in the U.S. for a total amount of about US$1.575 billion. Bayer has only been settling claims in the U.S. for venous clot injuries (deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism) after a case-specific analysis of medical records on a rolling basis. Such injuries are alleged by about 2,300 of the pending unsettled claimants. Bayer will continue to consider the option of settling such individual lawsuits in the U.S. on a case-by-case basis.”
According to the court file in the litigation, Bayer agreed to pay up to $24 million to settle other lawsuits in the MDL involving gallbladder complaints. Attorneys have said these complaints will be settled after the above lawsuits have been settled.