IS YOUR BIRTH CONTROL AS SAFE AS YOU THINK? MARIE CLAIRE ASKS ON MAY 24, 2012 HEALTH & FITNESS NEWS ON BIRTH CONTROL SAFETY

MARIE CLAIRE OPENLY DEBATES THE SAFETY OF NUVARING VAGINAL RINGS IN 2012 AND PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF PENDING LAWSUITS.

In “Is Your Birth Control as Safe as You Think?“, Marie Claire writer, Laura Bell, ponders the nearly 1,000 lawsuits that are pending and involve NUVARING VAGINAL RINGS. Her research identified 5.5 millions prescriptions written in the United States in 2010, establishing it as a popular alternative to traditional birth control pills. MERCK’S worldwide sales are estimated as $559M in this article. In evaluating the question, she notes that close to 1,000 cases of possible NUVARING blood clots have been reported to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Bell’s thought provoking piece should be read and considered by any girl or woman considering a claim against the manufacturer MERCK. It is not uncommon for pharmaceutical companies to claim studies that do not agree with their pre-marketing studies are incorrect or somehow flawed. This was a tactic devised by Tobacco companies to defend themselves against claims of cancer, addiction and disease, which hoodwinked many for over half a century. At the time, it was claimed that the risks of Tobacco remained open to scientific debate, study and question – sound familiar? The same tactic was recently taken in the YAZ YASMIN litigation which involved the popular contraceptive pills and independent studies linking the progestin – DROSPIRENONE - to higher risks. Ironically, both DROSPIRENONE and NUVARING VAGINAL RINGS were considered as presenting higher risks of blood clots in an FDA study released during October 2011.

However, Bell’s piece fails to link the ‘fall back’ defense of an open debate to the fact that even the FDA noted more studies were needed, after it found an increased risk it’s own study. The piece also fails to provide any insight into the recently released, May 10, 2012, British Medical Journal  (BMJ) study discussed below.

As an experienced contraception attorney, I am often confronted with the ‘open question’ defense that Pharma has adopted from the great lie Tobacco perpetrated on the American public for over half a century. Similarly, the idea that healthy women do not succumb to a blood clot because they are statistically less likely to experience one misses the entire point of the problem. Girls, women and their prescribing physicians must be empowered to make informed decisions of the risks they are taking. If manufacturers are not disclosing such risks, or avoid establishing the risk profile to market a novel product, they are putting girls and women at risk. Without knowing the potential for increased risk one cannot say a girl or woman knowingly exposed themselves to the potential for a blood clot. Blood clots form in the heart, lungs, legs and can travel into the brain resulting in strokes or death. Pulmonary Emboli (Blood Clots in the Lung(s) and Deep Vein Thrombosis (Blood Clots in the Legs) can come with a lifetime of complications, including high risk pregnancy, lengthy use of anti-coagulants (WARFARIN, COUMADIN, ARIXTRA, LOVENOX) which come with other complications.

You cannot knowingly or willfully agree to the increased risks of a product of you were not properly or adequately informed of the potential for risks. That is what is at the heart of NUVARING VAGINAL RING lawsuits. If the manufacturer knew, when they knew of the potential, and why they are a decade after bringing their novel product to market still “studying” such risks in the name of science will have to be vetted through pending lawsuits. Girls, women and prescribers will have to come forward to tell their stories as this chapter in the history of NUVARING VAGINAL RING LAWSUITS is being written.

NUVARING VAGINAL RING BLOOD CLOT CASE EVALUATIONS ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE SPONSOR OF THIS SITE THROUGH USE OF THE CONTACT FORM BELOW.

MARIE CLAIRE ARTICLE - Posted here 5.23.12. Dated 5.24.12.