Lawyers in NuvaRing Birth Control Lawsuit to Meet with Judge Next Week
Published: September 25th, 2008 • Comments: 4
An initial conference will be held next week for all consolidated NuvaRing birth control lawsuits transferred to the MDL formed last month. The court and lawyers for both parties will discuss preliminary issues regarding the centralized litigation and a case management order.
NuvaRing is a newer type of birth control manufactured by Organon Pharmaceuticals, which delivers medication through a ring inserted by the woman once a month to prevent pregnancy. However, NuvaRing side effects have been linked to an increased risk of serious and potentially fatal blood clots.
Otherwise healthy young women have reported suffering heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and other blood clot injuries while on the birth control ring.
A growing number of Nuva Ring lawsuits have been filed in federal court and various state courts throughout the country. The cases allege that Organon failed to adequately warn about the risk of blood clots.
On August 22, 2008, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued an order consolidating all federal NuvaRing litigation in the Eastern District of Missouri before Judge Rodney W. Sipple, under a federal procedure known as an MDL or Multidistrict Litigation. All cases were centralized in Missouri for purposes of pretrial litigation, to eliminate duplicative discovery, prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings and conserve the resources of the parties, their lawyers and the court.
The first case conference before Judge Sippel will be held on Thursday, October 2, 2008. The court and NuvaRing lawyers for both parties will discuss issues regarding the setting of a Case Management Order and the progress of discovery in select cases. The court will also likely review issues regarding the management of the MDL, such as the appointment of lead counsel, Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee members and liaison counsel from the lawyers who have filed NuvaRing lawsuits.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs filed a list of proposed agenda items on September 24, 2008, also requesting a discussion of uniform procedures for NuvaRing lawsuit complaints, answers, acceptance of service by defense counsel and whether cases can be filed directly in the MDL.
An MDL is common in complex pharmaceutical litigation, and the cases can often take several years to resolve.
Comment by Yana on 26 September 2008:
So if i understand correctly, the cases will take several years to resolve, in the meantime we will let young women suffer from heart attacks and strokes…and the pharmaceutical companies will continue making millions of dollars!!! Great strategy….
Comment by Elaine on 26 September 2008:
Yana: women who take any type of birth control are risking their health and possible infertility but no one dare expose these risks and if they have, the politically correct dismiss them as right-wing religious fundamentalist propaganda.
The ugly truth is birth control is bad for women’s health and in some cases, even destroys the life of a child already conceived.
If women truly cared about their health, they certainly wouldn’t take any type of birth control.
Comment by Miss Ci on 2 October 2008:
WOW Elaine… I couldn’t disagree with you more. If we truly cared about our health… what if we truly care about our future and the future lives of our children? Women have been taking birth control for ages and having children for ages. I am on the Nuva Ring now. Do I not care about my health? I do! But I also don’t want (and can’t afford) little ones right now.
Comment by Kelly on 2 November 2008:
One year ago, I was a healthy, active 27-year-old professional who had been on the Nuva Ring for over a year. All of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe without gasping, and ended up in the emergency room. I had bilateral pulmonary embolism and had to stay in the hospital for a week. I wasn’t fully recovered for another month to 2 months, and still had constant chest pain. I could no longer enjoy the active lifestyle I had maintained. I had to be on the blood thinner coumadin for 6 months as a precautionary measure. I had several doctors run dozens of tests, all of which came back negative. It ended up being ruled as a hormonal reaction to the Nuva Ring, with no other preconditions. I could have died, 3 months before my wedding. I never in a million years thought that birth control could kill you. I want to spread the word to all women contemplating birth control and would love to see the Nuva Ring discontinued. Any help I could give in this cause I would consider.