Yasmin and Yaz Suits Consolidated in Pennsylvania State Court

Litigation filed in Pennsylvania state court against Bayer over health problems with Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills have been consolidated for mass tort treatment in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas.

Judge Sandra Mazer Moss ordered the consolidation last week, appointing liaison counsel to act on behalf of all plaintiffs who have filed a Yaz suit or Yasmin suit in the state. The complaints all contain similar allegations that Bayer failed to warn that the birth control pill may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, gallbladder disease or sudden death.

Yaz and Yasmin both contain a combination of ethinyl estradiol, which is used in many oral contraceptives, and drospirenone, a new type of progestin that is unique to these drugs and a generic Yasmin version sold as Ocella.

Drospirenone, or drsp, impacts the body’s normal mechanism of regulating a balance between salt and water. This could result in elevated potassium levels, a condition known as hyperckalemia, which has been linked to potentially life-threatening heart problems and other health issues.

Over 50 reports of Yasmin or Yaz deaths were reported to the FDA between the first quarter of 2004 and the third quarter of 2008, according to some of the complaints. The deaths involved women as young as 17 and included cardiac arrests, pulmonary embolisms and strokes, with elevated levels of potassium in the blood frequently reported.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is scheduled to consider a similar consolidation for more than four dozen Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits currently pending in various federal district courts throughout the United States. The panel will determine whether the cases involve sufficiently common questions of fact and whether consolidation into an MDL, or multidistrict litigation is appropriate, during a hearing September 24.

Transferring all cases to one judge is designed to help the courts manage complex litigation that involves a number of similar claims, eliminates the potential for inconsistent pretrial rulings and avoids duplicate discover on facts that are common to many cases.