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Lawsuits and the Right to Safe Contraception

By Joe Consumer

Is it too much to ask that pharmaceutical companies produce a safe contraceptive that doesn?t increase the risk of blood clots, heart attacks, pulmonary embolism and stroke, not to mention acne and weight gain?  This is apparently a rhetorical question. 

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that two 2009 British Medical Journal studies of this country?s #1 oral contraceptive, Yasmin and Yaz, showed them associated with significantly higher risk of blood clots.  The only two studies refuting this were sponsored by the drug?s manufacturer, Bayer, a company already found by the Food and Drug Administration and the attorneys general of 27 states to be running deceptive and bogus TV ads about Yaz?s supposed cure for acne and PMS.  Anything to find new customers, I guess.  

In light of their injuries from blod clots, however, 1,100 women have now brought suit again Bayer.  Let?s see now, we are in our ? count ?em ? fourth generation of unsafe birth control pills, with generation one, three and four associated with higher risks of stroke, blood clots, heart attacks or deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.  The second generation reduced these risks but led to weight gain and acne.  Nice.

Some of these drugs, as well as other lethal contraceptives like the Dalkon Shield, which killed and injured thousands of women, and the Ortho Evra patch (still on the market and still being studied) were discussed in Center for Justice & Democracy?s report, The Bitterest Pill.  CJ&D notes,

Women across the country have suffered tremendously as a result of defective and dangerous drugs and medical devices.  History shows that many FDA-approved drugs and devices that have caused some of the most serious injuries and death have been marketed specifically for women. This is largely due to the number of products routinely prescribed to otherwise healthy women to control some aspect of their reproductive system.

Many drugs and devices were made safer only after women and their families filed lawsuits against those responsible. Sometimes, companies that have been hit with large verdicts or settlements act immediately to change their unsafe product or practice.  Lawsuits also have had a tremendously beneficial role spurring medical research and alerting the public ? and ultimately pressuring regulators ? to act on larger health risks and problems.  As a result, the lives of countless other women have been saved.  

In addition, unlike the regulatory scheme, which provides no direct benefit to victims, civil cases hold companies directly accountable to those whom they have hurt, and provide their victims with compensation to help rebuild their lives.

 As expected, Bayer spokespeople quoted by the LA Times, including doctors consulting for Bayer, apparently don?t believe women have the right to safe contraception.  One doctor said that because all oral contraceptives increase blood clot risk three-to fourfold (even though the studies show a much higher risk than that), young women who take them should essentially shut up about it because the blood clot risk of pregnancy is higher.  Another doctor who is on Bayer?s advisory board argued that lawsuits are what?s ?scaring the heck out of women? -  not the findings of the British Medical Journal studies.

But other doctors disagree.  ??There is reason to be concerned, I believe, about both of them [Yaz and Yasmin],? said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, founder and director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. ?When evidence like that comes up, people should pay attention to it.??

Full post as published by ThePopTort on April 20, 2010 (boomark / email).