Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm has offices based in Fort Worth and Dallas and represents people who have suffered catastrophic and serious personal injuries including wrongful death, caused by the negligence or recklessness of others. We specialize in Personal Injury trial litigation and focus our energy and efforts on those we represent.

Articles Posted in Product Liability

Bayer AG, Germany’s largest drugmaker, was sued by two Pennsylvania pension funds and accused of misrepresenting the safety and effectiveness of the Yaz contraceptive to boost sales.

Bayer unlawfully promoted the drug from March 2006 to March 2009 by concealing side effects including blood clots, heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms, two health and welfare funds for firefighters and city employees said in a federal court complaint made public today in Philadelphia.

The Yasmin family of birth control pills, known as Yaz, Yasmin and Yasminelle, were Bayer’s top-selling drugs last year, bringing in about $1.8 billion, a 17 percent increase over 2007.

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The New York Times reported September 25 on the controversy surrounding Yaz and Yasmin, two popular birth control pills (BCPs).

The controversy is a result of the marketing and manufacturing processes identified by the Food and Drug Administration. The major concern is whether these medications increase the risk of blood clots.

Yaz and Yasmin use both estrogens and progestins to prevent ovulation. Estimates are that at baseline about 1 women in 10,000 will have a blood clot this year; that number increases to about 3 women in 10,000 if they are taking BCPs.

Also the fact is that more than 50 women in 10,000 will get a blood clot due to pregnancy.

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Several lawsuits filed on behalf of women who were injured or killed by the popular birth control drugs Yaz and Yasmin will be consolidated into a multidistrict litigation group in the Southern District of Illinois, a federal judicial panel has ruled.

A total of 32 federal lawsuits have been filed against Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc., the maker of Yaz and Yasmin. The two contraceptives use different doses of the same hormone, drospirenone, which has been linked to increased levels of potassium in the blood and many user deaths and serious injuries.

From 2004 to 2008, there were at least 50 deaths in the United States associated with the use of Yaz, the Food and Drug Administration has said. Women taking the drug have reported suffering heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and other types of blood clotting, and gallbladder disease.

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The Supreme Court of New Jersey backed a $4.5 million award to the widow of a man who suffered heart problems after using Merck’s painkiller Vioxx, ending of the last unresolved lawsuits related to the drug.

The court dismissed Merck’s appeal and upheld the award in the case McDarby v. Merck, according to the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg. The firm said the ruling was issued on May 7. A jury found that Merck and Co. failed to warn patient John McDarby about Vioxx’s cardiac risks, which later caused the drug to be taken off the market.

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Asbestos lawsuits are filed by plaintiffs who have suffered as the result of asbestos-related illness. Plaintiffs in asbestos lawsuits can include the victims of asbestos exposure, or their families or loved ones. Defendants against asbestos lawsuits are those parties considered responsible for the asbestos exposure. In the past, targets of asbestos lawsuits have included:

* Employers
* Asbestos manufacturers
* Asbestos installers
* Landlords
* Leasing agents

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A new Yaz lawsuit was filed this week against Bayer Pharmaceuticals by a woman who alleges the popular birth control pill caused her to suffer pulmonary emboli and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), leaving her with permanent injuries.

Anna Butler of Kansas filed the product liability lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which is at least the 75th federal lawsuit over Yaz or Yasmin oral contraceptives.

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Wyeth’s hormone-replacement therapy drug Prempro caused an Illinois woman’s invasive breast cancer and she deserves $3.7 million, a jury decided in Philadelphia, without yet deciding whether the company was at fault and should pay her.

Jurors deliberated about two hours and 15 minutes before concluding that Wyeth’s drug was a proximate cause of Connie Barton’s breast cancer. Barton, 64, was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, five years after she began taking Prempro to treat menopausal symptoms.

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The bankruptcy court judge overseeing certain Chrysler assets has approved a $24 million settlement in the death of a California longshoreman run over by a Dodge pickup.

The settlement comes more than two years after a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded damages of more than $55 million to the family of Richard Mraz. The family argued the automaker had failed to fix and adequately warn consumers about a transmission defect that made it appear trucks were in park position, when they actually were between gears.

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Women taking Yaz as a form of birth control or to treat other conditions have suffered devastating gallbladder disease, in addition to increased risks of heart attacks, stroke, and blood clots.

In some cases, Yaz users have been forced to undergo painful surgeries to remove their gallbladder due to the formation of gallstones and other complications.

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YAZ (3 mg drospirenone/20 mcg ethinyl estradiol) is an oral contraceptive (OC) which is the first pill to combine 20 mcg of ethinyl estradiol (EE) with the so-called “fourth generation” progestin drospirenone (DRSP). YAZ was approved by the FDA in March 2006.

A study called the International Active Surveillance Study of Women Taking Oral Contraceptives (INAS-OC), which was started in August 2005 and continues to date, is intended to evaluate the risk of those cardiovascular side effects for women who use DRSP/EE birth control pills like YAZ.

The study was funded with an unrestricted grant from Bayer Schering Pharma AG. Dr. Dinger has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

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