Ortho Evra
March 1, 2006Dozens in Missouri, Illinois file Ortho Evra lawsuit
Two dozen women in Missouri and Illinois have filed an Ortho Evra lawsuit against Ortho-McNeil, the manufacturer of the popular birth control patch. The Ortho Evra lawsuit contends that using it caused the women to experience severe Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects—including blood clots, heart attack, stroke and even death—according to their Ortho Evra lawyer.Rachel Cook, one of the women who filed the Ortho Evra birth control patch lawsuit, says that she experienced serious blood clots after using the Ortho Evra patch. Because of this Ortho Evra birth control patch side effect, she was forced to go to the emergency room in order to treat the painful symptoms of her blood clots. “I had serious pain,” Cook says. “I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t walk.”
While Cook and many of the other women who filed the Ortho Evra lawsuit received successful treatment for their birth control patch injuries, other women were not so fortunate. Ashley Lewis, a 17-year-old student from Missouri, died from the birth control patch side effects that she suffered three months after using the Ortho Evra patch.
Roger Denton, the women’s Ortho Evra birth control patch attorney, says that Ortho-McNeil and its parent company, Johnson & Johnson, didn’t do enough to check the safety of the Ortho Evra patch before releasing it to the public. Court documents from the Ortho Evra lawsuit suggest that Ortho-McNeil may have rushed the patch onto the market with inadequate testing because the patent on its Ortho Tri-Cyclen line of birth control pills was set to expire in September 2003.
Not until the Ortho Evra birth control patch was on the market did Ortho-McNeil conduct extensive safety reviews of possible birth control patch side effects. A 2005 study showed that the Ortho Evra birth control patch delivered an estrogen dose 60% higher than that released by birth control pills. Because estrogen increases the rate at which blood clots form, the higher estrogen rates in Ortho Evra birth control patch users puts them at a much higher risk of clotting and other birth control patch side effects. Another study released this year found three times the number of strokes among Ortho Evra patients as compared with birth control pills. In spite of this elevated risk, Johnson & Johnson has yet to order an Ortho Evra recall.
While only 62 Ortho Evra lawsuits were filed prior to this newest case, Denton expects that number to grow as women become aware of the link between their own symptoms and the Ortho Evra birth control. “It’s going to be in the thousands, if not larger,” he says.