Bayer recently agreed to pay $110 Million to settle 500 Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits (about $220,000 per case average). The prescription, birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin, have been linked to an increase in blood clots, heart attacks and strokes. The FDA determined that there was a 74% increase in blood clots for women taking Yaz and Yasmin compared with birth control pills with a lower level of estrogen. They have recently required Bayer to add stronger product label warnings concerning these risks.
The $110M settlements was the result of a mediation set after an Illinois federal judge postponed the first of a series of trials to determine if Bayer failed to adequately warn of the higher risk of blood clots from its products. This first trial was scheduled for January 9, 2012. There are over 11,000 Yaz lawsuits currently filed across the country.

Lawyers for BP and plaintiffs in the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have reached an agreement to settle their case for approximately $7.8 billion. The settlement was reached on the eve of the first phase of the trial involving the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in April 2010 killing eleven rig workers and beginning a spill that for months spewed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, destroying beaches and wildlife and disrupting the economies of Gulf Coast States. The first phase of the trial was intended, in part, to apportion blame among the defendants, BP, Transocean and Halliburton. The settlement will also provide compensation and medical services to some victims over the next 21 years.

BP’s CEO, Robert Dudley, issued a statement saying, “The proposed settlement represents significant progress toward resolving issues from the Deepwater Horizon accident and contributing further to economic and environmental restoration efforts along the Gulf Coast.” BP has already paid out more than $8 billion to claimants, and has spent some $14 billion in responding to the spill.

The settlement will be paid to thousands of businesses and individuals affected by the spill. But, the agreement does not include the federal government or the state and local governments along the coast which are probably the biggest plaintiffs in the case. The federal government, for example, may still recover billions of dollars in environmental fines.

The proposed settlement will replace the $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility fund created by BP to compensate victims of the spill and to pay natural resources damages and state and local response costs. Thus far this fund has paid out more than $6 billion to approximately 200,000 individuals and businesses.

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Medical experts, including those on a recent FDA advisory panel have concluded that Yaz and Yasmin may be more likely to cause blood clots than older types of birth control pills.  A majority of the panel concluded that the products’ label should be changed to warn of the potentially fatal nature of these blood clots.

Bayer promoted these drugs as offering advantages over standard birth control pills, including fewer side effects, alleviating acne and preventing premenstrual symptoms and headaches. In 2009, the FDA found those claims to be exaggerated and forced Bayer to run corrective television ads.

Yaz and Yasmin contain a synthetic version of the hormone progestin called drospirenone. According to a study by the FDA, which reviewed 800,000 women between 2001 and 2007, drospirenone based birth control pills increased the risk of blood clots by 75% when compared to older birth control pills. The study found that these drugs also doubled the risk of arterial thrombotic events such as heart attacks and strokes in some users. FDA studies also found significantly increased risk of blood clots linked to the Ortho-Evra patch and the NuvaRing contraceptive device.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed around the country claiming that Bayer failed to adequately warn users of the increased risk of  blood clots, heart attacks, strokes and even death.  Click here for more on this story. 

Propecia (generic name finasteride) has been prescribed to millions of men to help treat male pattern baldness. However, reports indicate that the drug may cause sexual side effects including erectile dysfunction or impotence which can persist even after its discontinued use. Propecia was approved by the FDA in 1997.

Merck & Co., the drug’s manufacturer, admits to the potential for these side effects but claims that they have ”occurred in less than 2% of men and went away in men who stopped taking Propecia.” A Journal of Sexual Medicine reported that about 8% of men taking Propecia reported erectile dysfunction and 4.2% reported reduced libido. Other studies have reported much higher percentages. Apparently the active ingredient in Propecia prevents a certain type of Testosterone to convert into DHT (dihydrotestosterone) in the scalp—reducing hair loss.  However, DHT is critical for male sexual performance and functioning.

Several lawsuits have been filed claiming that Merck failed to warn of the permanency of the sexual side effects. Other reported side effects of Propecia include: anxiety attacks and insomnia which may become chronic and persist even several years after the discontinuation of the drug. Other more severe reported side effects include male breast cancer and prostate cancer.  Click here for more on this topic.

Most of the thousands of hip replacement complaints the FDA has received involve metal-on-metal hips–ones in which the artificial ball and cup are both made of metal.  The majority of these complaints center on the DePuy Hip Replacement System manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.  This system was recalled by the company last year.  As many as 500,000 patients have received metal-on-metal replacement hips.

Replacement hips are supposed to last 15 years or more, but according to the 2011 Annual Report by the National Joint Registry of England and Wales, more than 25% of the J & J Depuy hips documented in its database are failing after only six years. This compares with a 9.5% failure rate for all metal-on-metal hip implants during that time period. The report also stated that 17% of the Depuy hips were replaced after only five years.  In addition to pain and potential revision surgeries, problems may include injuries caused by particles of metal shed by the devices as they wear.  J & J currently faces more than 2000 lawsuits related to its hip implants. For more on this story click here.