Posts Tagged ‘ NuvaRing ’

Top 10 Drug Legal News Topics For 2012

December 24th, 2012. By AbiK

LawyersandSettlements.com recently shared its list of the hottest consumer-related pharmaceutical legal news stories during the last year. Of note is that while the top drug-related topic on the legal news website in 2011 had been Tylenol—prompted by concerns over a series of Tylenol recall notices as reported by The New York Times; for 2012, the most sought out pharmaceutical topics have shifted to women’s health.

Third-generation contraceptives such as Yasmin/Yaz, NuvaRing and Mirena top the list this year as numerous birth control lawsuits either settled, or began the process of consolidation into multi-district litigation (MDL).

Reader interest in Yaz/Yasmin rose in response to Yasmin lawsuit settlements that were announced in April (In re Yasmin and Yaz (Drospirenone) Marketing, Sales Practices and Product Liability Litigation, 09-md-02100, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois, East St. Louis). Bloomberg reported Bayer AG settled about 500 Yasmin lawsuits over claims of blood clots that had, in some cases, led to stroke or heart attack.

Along with Yaz, readers remained concerned about NuvaRing (etonogestrel/ethinyl estradiol) and blood clot risk even as a new study on non-oral hormonal contraception, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2012;344:e2990), was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (May, 2012). The study, aimed at quantifying NuvaRing blood clot risk, indicated no significant difference in risk of venous thromboembolism when compared to oral contraceptives.

Still, NuvaRing lawsuits continue and have been consolidated into a federal MDL court in Missouri (In re: NuvaRing Products Liability Litigation, No. 08-md-1964, JPML, Eastern District Missouri). As of September 5, 2012, according to the U.S. Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, more than 1,000 NuvaRing lawsuits have been filed.

Mirena IUD (levonorgestrel) saw an increase in reader interest after August 2012, as Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. submitted an Application for Centralized Management of Certain Cases involving Mirena. As FoxNews reported (11/11/12), the request seeks to create a multi-district litigation (MDL) for 16 pending Mirena lawsuits in NJ that allege Mirena caused uterine perforation, infection and hemorrhaging injuries.

After the top three women’s health-related drugs, Pradaxa (dabigatran), an alternative to warfarin, joined the list this year making the Top 5. In November 2012, the FDA issued a Drug Safety Communication regarding Pradaxa bleeding events which in turn helped drive reader interest.

Thousands of LawyersandSettlements.com monthly readers have followed the latest legal news and information on these topics, many of which have fallen from the radar of traditional media outlets.

“We believe these issues are of great importance to the public, mostly due to the life-changing impact they can have on an individual,” said Stephen King, CEO. “Some of our most interesting stories of the year related to pharmaceuticals. Many of them have pending lawsuits or have had substantial settlements related to their life-altering side effects and it’s important to get this information out to the public. While many pharmaceutical companies continue to earn significant profits, people are suffering. They may think they have no recourse but in many cases they do. By keeping these topics alive, LawyersandSettlements.com is helping people stay up-to-date on these important topics every day.”

The LawyersandSettlements.com Top 10 Pharmaceutical Topics of 2012, along with the potential side effects readers were seeking information on, are:

1. Yasmin/YAZ (gall bladder disease, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism)

2. NuvaRing & Mirena (blood clots, infection, perforation of the uterus)

3. Pradaxa (uncontrollable bleeding, lack of an available antidote)

4. Granuflo (elevated bicarbonate levels, risk for metabolic alkalosis)

5. SSRIs (birth defects including heart defects, spina bifida, cleft palate, club foot, PPHN)

6. Actos (bladder cancer, heart failure, kidney failure, rhabdomyolysis)

7. Diethylstilbestrol/DES (cancer)

8. Crestor / Statins (diabetes, cardiomyopathy, rhabdomyolysis)

9. Fosamax (bone fractures, esophageal cancer)

10. Propecia (sexual dysfunction, erectile dysfunction, sterility, prostate cancer)

LawyersandSettlements.com readers are looking for the latest and most comprehensive legal news available. Those seeking legal help can request assistance by completing a form which is then distributed to attorneys specializing in these cases. Over two and a half million people visit the site yearly, and hundreds of thousands of request forms have been submitted by qualified readers looking for legal guidance.

Tags: Actos, Birth Control Side Effects, Class Action Lawsuit, Crestor, DES, Drug Injury, Drug Lawsuit, Fosamax, Granuflo, Lawsuit, Legal News, Mirena, NuvaRing, Pradaxa, Propecia, SSRI, statins, Yasmin, Yaz
Posted in Class Action, Drugs/Medical, Emerging Issues | No Comments »

Why are there NuvaRing Lawsuits? Here’s NuvaRing by the Numbers…

May 25th, 2012. By AbiK

As NuvaRing lawsuits continue to wind their way through litigation, it’s interesting to look at some of the numbers on the contraceptive—as numbers tend to tell a story.

NuvaRing was also in the news recently for another reason: in a newly published study, apparently longer-term reversible contraception was found to be more effective in preventing pregnancy than shorter-term methods. Longer-term contraception would include IUDs and implants; shorter-term would be birth control pills, patches and rings. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (5/24/12), found longer-term contraception to be 20 times more effective in preventing pregnancy (of course, one of the reasons cited for this was human error–such as forgetting to take the pill).

So here we go…

NuvaRing by the Numbers

2001: Year in which NuvaRing received FDA approval

950+: Number of NuvaRing lawsuits pending, as reported in Merck’s 10-K earnings report, fiscal year 2011

56%: Percent by which FDA study found NuvaRing raised risk of blood clots vs. older birth control pills.

6: Types of serious NuvaRing adverse events alleged in lawsuits (blood clots, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, heart attack, stroke, sudden death)

6.5x: Times higher risk for NuvaRing blood clots compared to non-users of hormonal contraception, according to British Medical Journal study (5/10/12)

5,493: Total number of adverse events reported at the FDA AERS database for NuvaRing, 1Q’04-2Q’11*

30: Average age of women who have had a NuvaRing adverse event reported to the FDA*

1,953: Number of NuvaRing adverse events categorized under “Pulmonary Vascular”, 1Q’04-2Q’11*

1,921: Number of NuvaRing adverse events categorized under “Embolism & Thrombosis”, 1Q’04-2Q’11*

1,648: Number of NuvaRing pulmonary embolism adverse events reported, 1Q’04-2Q’11*

1,274: Number of NuvaRing deep vein thrombosis adverse events reported, 1Q’04-2Q’11

*Source: FDA NuvaRing AERS reports via drugcite.com

Tags: Adverse Events, AERS, BJM, blood clots, DVT, FDA, NEJM, NuvaRing, NuvaRing lawsuit, PE
Posted in Drugs/Medical, Emerging Issues, Personal Injury | No Comments »