Problems with Yaz, Yasmin Result in 10.2% Decrease in Sales

Bayer has announced that concerns over blood clots from Yaz and Yasmin have contributed to a 10.2% drop in sales of their popular birth control pill. Awareness of the potential problems has increased in recent months, as a growing number of Yaz lawsuits and Yasmin lawsuits have been filed by women who allege that they suffered severe and life-threatening injuries while using the contraceptives. 

The statement came as part of Bayer’s quarterly report to investors on sales and earnings. The losses in the healthcare division were at odds with gains made in other parts of the company, which saw a 5.3% increase in sales overall for the first quarter of 2010.

“Demand for [the Yaz family of oral contraceptives] in the United States suffered particularly from the discussion surrounding the thrombosis risk of contraceptives containing drospirenone,” the company said in its report. “However, Bayer continues to believe that the risk profile is comparable to that of other combination oral contraceptives.”

Yaz and Yasmin are two similar birth control pills that are both manufactured by Bayer, containing drospirenone, a new “fourth” generation progestin. Drospirenone is only found in Yaz, Yasmin and a generic version sold under the name Ocella. Critics have pointed to this newer type of progestin as the likely cause of an increased risk of blood clots and other serious health problems with Yaz and Yasmin.

More than 1,100 lawsuits over Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella have been filed in the U.S. on behalf of women who allege that they suffered injuries such as a stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder disease and other complications. All federal Yaz and Yasmin cases are consolidated in an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, centralized in the Southern District of Illinois for pretrial litigation. There are also state level Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits consolidated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey courts.

At the same time women were abandoning Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills, sales of Bayer’s Mirena, a levonorgestral-based pill, skyrocketed more than 16%. Recent research has suggested that levonorgestral birth control pills may carry less risk of blood clots than Yaz, Yasmin and other oral contraceptives. One study published in the British Medical Journal in August found that birth control pills containing the progestin drospirenone increased the risk of blood clots in women 6.3 times over those not on birth control, while levonorgestrel-based pills only increased the risk about 4 times.

Last month, Bayer announced that new information would be added to the warning label about the risk of Yaz and Yasmin blood clot side effects compared to other birth control pills containing levonorgestrel.