The first Yaz trial, which involves a plaintiff who suffered a pulmonary embolism after taking the drospirenone-containing birth control pill, was set to begin on January 9th. However, the federal judge overseeing thousands of Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella venous thromboembolism lawsuits, instead ordered that all involved parties meet with a special mediator in order to negotiate a settlement for the litigation.
Judge Herndon’s December 31st order has delayed the start of a trial that was likely going to help both the prosecution and the defense gauge how juries would react and respond to the evidence presented in many of the cases. Stephen Saltzburg, a professor at the George Washington School of Law, was the Special Master appointed to mediated the entire litigation.
To date, more than 10,500 women have filed product liability lawsuits against Bayer AG, alleging that they suffered injuries as a result of Bayer’s failure to properly warn users of the potentially dangerous side effects of Yasmin, Yaz and other drospirenone-containing birth control pills.
According to a recent report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, birth control pills that contain drospirenone, a new kind of synthetic progestin, may increase the risk for blood clots by as much as 75 percent over older-generation birth control pills.
