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Folks, we have been investigating and evaluating Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella injury cases since July 2009. I have blogged extensively about the side effects and injuries that our clients have received because of these medications, over 120 articles at last count. Nobody deserves to being injured, maimed or even killed as a result of taking birth control pills.

I have also blogged about the ABC news’ "Nightline" story of Carissa Ubersox, a pediatric nurse who nearly died after taking YAZ, a birth control pill which was sold by Bayer as a "miracle" drug for its alleged ability to also treat acne and symptoms of Pre Menstrual Syndrome (PMS).

The drug was heavily marketed and promoted in television ads by Bayer. Bayer pitched them as a new "miracle pill" for PMS, and the sales of the drug immediately sky-rocketed to some $2 billion a year, making it Bayer’s top-selling drug.

Furthermore, it was sold as "beyond birth control," in a massive and misleading television and print advertising campaign, for its supposed ability to fight acne (for which actually safe alternatives are available) and PMS (which the company was eventually forced to admit it didn’t actually have any effect on).

Yaz, Yasmin and related drospirenone-containing pills were Bayer’s second-best-selling franchise last year at $1.6 billion in global sales.

In 2009, the FDA took the unusual step of ordering Bayer to run corrective TV advertisements on Yaz, saying the drugmaker’s marketing campaign overstated the drugs’ ability to prevent acne and premenstrual syndrome.

While all birth control pills are known to offer a small risk of blood clots in users, Bayer insists that YAZ didn’t offer higher risk than other birth control pills. But, the company’s claims were based on their own (nonindependent) studies. As Boston University School of Medicine professor Susan Jick explains in the "Nightline" report, "two Bayer studies found no increase in risk, while the four independent studies all found increased risk."

Birth-control pills that contain drospirenone include Bayer’s Yaz, Yasmin, Beyaz, Safyral; Sandoz’s Syeda and Loryna; as well as Barr Laboratories’ Ocella, Watson Pharmaceuticals’ Zarah and Teva Pharmaceuticals’ Loryna.

One Comment

  1. Gravatar for mountainsister
    mountainsister

    Why is this drug still on the market? It has been pulled in the UK.

    One of my friends lost a 21 year old daughter who died suddenly while on Yaz. This was several years ago. Now recently I have another friend whose grand-daughter died from blood clots while taking Yaz. How many have to die before this drug is banned. And in the news today it says they released a generic form of Yaz . This is horrible news.

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