Yaz Ads Were Deceptive and Profitable

Brenda Fulmer

Attorney
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Bayer was recently sued by a union’s health insurer in Pennsylvania who alleges that the German manufacturer of one of the top-selling birth control pills engaged in deceptive trade practices and a three-year racketeering scheme in order to sell its drugs to young women and induce their health insurers to pay for them. This latest lawsuit focuses on the time period from March 17, 2006, through March 31, 2009 and alleges that Bayer misled doctors, patients and others regarding the safety risks associated with Yaz and Yasmin. The health insurer seeks to disgorge profits made during that time period, when sales of Yaz and Yasmin grew 17% to approximately $1.8 billion according to Bloomberg.

You may recall some of the advertising employed by Bayer early on in their marketing of Yaz; they looked more like commercials for a wonder drug than a contraceptive:

In the past several months, Bayer has faced the following:

• Establishment of MDL 2100 for the national coordination of lawsuits in federal court over Yaz and Yasmin with hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits expected to be filed by women and young girls who suffered pulmonary emboli, DVT, heart attacks, strokes, or gallbladder disease while taking the popular birth control pills
• Publication of an article in the British Medical Journal that notes significantly increased risks of blood clotting adverse events in women using Yaz and Yasmin, especially in the months following first use of the products.
• Investigation by Swiss authorities into the September 2009 death of a young woman who suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism after taking Bayer’s Yaz for approximately 10 months.
• Reached $20 million settlement with the California Attorney General over claims of deceptive advertising for Yaz, which includes requirement that Bayer run corrective advertising to correct previous misleading claims. Similar agreements have been reached with 29 other states as well.

In response to the union health insurer lawsuit, Bayer spokeswoman Rose Talarico commented in the Law 360 Product Liability Reporter: “Bayer reaffirms and stands behind the safety of its drospirenone-containing oral contraceptives.”