Lawsuit Filed Over Recalled Qualitest Birth Control Pills

A Missouri woman has filed a product liability lawsuit against Qualitest Pharmaceuticals, after becoming pregnant as a while taking defectively manufactured birth control pills that were recalled in 2011. 

The Qualitest birth control lawsuit was filed by Shanta Russell on February 6, in Jackson County Circuit Court of Kansas City.

According to the complaint, Russell became pregnant because Qualitest sold birth control pills that were mislabeled and placed in the packaging in the wrong order, which left users unprotected against pregnancy.

Russell indicates that she now has a one-year-old child as a result the problems with her birth control pills.

A Qualitest birth control pill recall was issued in September 2011, after it was discovered that some of the pill-containing blister packages were rotated 180 degrees during packaging, reversing the weekly tablet orientation and leading some women to take the pills in the wrong order.

The recall affected more than 70 lots of Qualitest birth control pills, including Cyclafem 7/7/7, Cyclafem 1/35, Emoquette, Gildess FE 1.5/30, Gildess FE 1/20, Orsythia, Previfem and Tri-Previfem. Millions of blister packs were affected. Qualitest is a division of Endo Pharmaceuticals, which is also a defendant in the case.

According to allegations raised in the lawsuit, Russell took Qualitest birth control pills for several years before she took a pregnancy test in June 2011, which returned a positive result. She took several more tests with the same result and then had the pregnancy confirmed by her doctor. Three months later she was informed by mail that she received one of the recalled birth control pill packages.

It was the third Qualitest drug recall over labeling problems that year. In June 2011, a manufacturing problem led to labels being swapped between bottles of generic Vicodin and Fioricet. On February 5, 2011, three lots of generic Vicodin and Phenobarbital were recalled after a bottle of Vicodin was found with a Phenobarbital label.

Russell’s lawsuit seeks compensation for medical expenses, child-rearing and emotional pain and suffering.