Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog
As a Yaz Pulmonary Embolism, Deep Vein Thrombosis Attorney I have written extensively about the risks inherent in birth control pills containing Drospirenone.
According to status report held on June 22, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Bayer has reached agreements with about 33 different law firms to resolve at least 1,444 YAZ Deep Vein Thrombosis, Stroke and Pulmonary Embolism claims.
According to Bloomberg News, as of late April, Bayer faced 11,900 lawsuits over Yaz and its sister drug Yasmin in the U.S. with about 14,000 plaintiffs. Experts predict that the company may have to pay up to $2.65 billion to settle all of the pending cases.
Bayer, the manufacturer of Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella, began settlement negotiations earlier in January, with women who claimed venous thrombo-embolism blood clot-related personal injuries allegedly caused by side effects of these oral contraceptive birth control pills.
Yaz Federal Lawsuit MDL
All federal cases have been centralized for pretrial proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. These lawsuits are consolidated as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.
No Venous Thrombotic or Blood Clot Bellwether Trials
According to the hearing conference minutes, the judge overseeing the MDL litigation, opined that there are not going to be any bellwether cases involving venous thrombotic injuries. The reason apparently was because the settlement process is continuing to work to resolve the remaining injury cases.
Bayer is only settling lawsuits involving a pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis injury at this time. A deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot that occurs in the deep veins of the legs or pelvis. A pulmonary embolism occurs when the leg blood clot breaks off, travels through the blood stream and becomes lodged in the lung.