Yaz Birth Control Sales Fall Amid Mounting Lawsuits, Generic Competition

Generic competition and lawsuits over side effects of Yasmin and Yaz birth control appear to have caused sales for the popular Bayer contraceptive pills to drop, according to recent information released to investors. 

Yasmin and Yaz birth control pill sales fell 15 percent last quarter, even as the overall revenue from Bayer’s consumer-health division increased by 10 percent. The drop comes as the number of Yaz birth control lawsuits and Yasmin birth control lawsuits in federal court doubled to 2,000 and Teva Pharmaceuticals launched a generic Yaz version (Gianvi) in June.

Bayer is fighting both the lawsuits and Teva. It has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against its competitor, saying that the generic Gianvi birth control pill violates an agreement the company had with Teva and patent protections that are supposed to be in place until 2014.

All federal Yaz litigation has been consolidated for pretrial proceedings as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL), under Chief Judge David Herndon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. There are more than 2,000 cases currently pending in the Yaz/Yasmin MDL, but that number is expected to continue to climb as Yaz birth control lawyers review and file additional cases throughout the country. There are also about 400 lawsuits consolidated in a New Jersey mass tort, and a number of cases have also been consolidated in Pennsylvania state court.

All of the lawsuits involve similar allegations that side effects of Yaz and Yasmin increase the risk that women may suffer a stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder disease or other injury. The plaintiffs claim that Bayer failed to adequately research the birth control pills or warn about the increased risks when compared to other available forms of oral birth control.

Yaz and Yasmin are among the most widely used types of oral birth control pills. They both contain a combination of ethinyl estradiol with a new type of progestin, drospirenone, which can increase blood potassium levels and cause serious heart and health problems.