Bayer said settlements of lawsuits over the company’s line of birth control contraceptives have risen to more than $402 million. So far, Bayer has resolved almost 1,900 cases in which it’s alleged that its Yasmin and Yaz contraceptives caused clots that can lead to strokes and heart attacks. Bayer has paid a total of $402.6 million in settlements in one category of blood clot cases, which makes for an average of roughly $212,000 per case.
Bayer has also more than doubled its money pot for Yaz cases, setting aside $610.5 million for future settlement cases. Bayer’s goal was to make appropriate provisions with their accounting measures so that most of the cases will be considered by patients to be worthy of settlement. Drug-industry analysts, such as Richard Vosser from JPMorgan Chase & Co., have forecasted that Bayer will end up paying over $2 billion to resolve all the cases.
In response to the ongoing lawsuits, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Bayer and other contraceptive manufacturers to strengthen the blood-clot warnings on their products. Now, pills like Bayer’s Yasmin, which contain the synthetic hormone drospirenone, will contain labels warning patients that such pills may so much as triple the risk for blood-clots. Yasmin was the No. 4 oral contraceptive in the U.S. in 2011, with 4.6% of the market as of September, thus millions of patients should not hesitate to contact an attorney if they have experienced any of the health issues linked to this product.
