Spanning the past decade, lawsuits against major pharmaceutical companies have been on the rise. Multiple civil lawsuits have been filed by women across the US for blood clot injuries and related ailments linked to some prescription birth controls. Both male and female patients have initiated personal injury claims due to liver failure and other serious complications caused by statins – medications designed to control cholesterol levels.
Prescription Birth Control Drugs, Side Effects, and Lawsuits
Yaz (Yasmin): The brand-name birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, containing drospirenone, were introduced to the market in 2006 by Bayer. Concern over dangerous side effects surfaced back in 2009 as patients taking Yaz began reporting adverse effects. Many Yaz / Yasmin patients also experienced blood clot injuries. A few of the more prominent injury claims cited instances of deep vein thrombosis. This condition refers to blood clots that develop in deep veins that can dislodge and then travel to the heart, lungs, or brain, causing heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, or strokes, respectively.
Since 2009, over 10,000 women have become part of a class-action lawsuit against Bayer. In 2010, the British Medical Journal and FDA published studies revealing that the hormone in Yaz and Yasmin, drospirenone, could increase the risk of blood clot formations by as much as 74 percent in women who take the drug. Bayer has since begun settling many of the 10,000 civil suits filed and is expected to continue compensating patients with certain injuries.
Ortho Evra: is a prescription contraceptive that uses a patch to deliver the hormones estrogen and progestin directly into the bloodstream through the skin. The patch was first introduced in 2002 by Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc. (a division of Johnson & Johnson) as an alternative to oral contraceptives. However, the FDA recorded 9,116 instances of adverse effects related to Ortho Evra between the spring of 2002 through fall of 2003.
In 2004, another FDA study found that taking Ortho Evra created a 300 percent increase in the occurrence of blood clot-related incidents. Personal injury claims cited strokes, heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms. Since 2002, there have been at least 23 reported deaths associated with Ortho Evra, 17 of which were directly attributed to blood clots. Thousands more have filed civil suits linked to strokes and other clot-related injuries.
Cholesterol Medications, Side Effects, and Lawsuits
Statins (Crestor and Lipitor): Medications known as statins are frequently prescribed to help lower cholesterol in adults. Statins are part of a class of medications called HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. HMG-CoAs work by slowing the body’s production of cholesterol as well as supplementing diet and exercise to reduce the amount of other fatty substances in the blood. The most popular statin medications are Lipitor (atorvastatin) and Crestor (rosuvastatin). Statins have been proven to both lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and raise HDL (good cholesterol) levels.
Crestor and Lipitor were the two leading name-brand statins prescribed in the US for many years. However, these drugs and other statins continue to be linked to some serious side effects, making them the primary topics of a large number of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits in the US. Some of the serious complications directly linked to statins include:
- Muscle damage
- Myopathy
- Kidney damage
- Kidney failure (also known as renal failure)
- Liver damage
- Rhabdomyolysis
- Diabetes
- Death
Research has also established a link between taking statins and contracting Type II diabetes. Sales of Lipitor and Crestor, as well as other statins, have decreased in recent years due to emerging information about the risks of side effects.
References:
Drug Risk (.com)
