Ortho Evra
September 26, 2006J&J eager to settle Ortho Evra birth control patch lawsuits
Lawyers for Johnson & Johnson say the company is anxious to settle the many Ortho Evra lawsuits it is currently facing. Johnson & Johnson is the parent company of Ortho-McNeil, maker of the Ortho Evra birth control patch. More than 500 Ortho Evra lawsuits have been filed, many of which have already been settled with women who suffered Ortho Evra side effects. Johnson & Johnson has told many of the plaintiffs, judges and Ortho Evra lawyers that it is looking to quickly settle these as well.Experts say that Johnson & Johnson seeks to avoid any more negative publicity from the birth control patch side effects that have been linked with Ortho Evra. Because most of the women who have filed Ortho Evra lawsuits have what is called a “signature disease”—a rare illness linked with use of the drug—Ortho Evra attorneys will have no trouble proving most of their claims in court. Ortho Evra has been linked with cases of blood clots, stroke, heart attack and other birth control patch side effects—conditions which are extremely rare among the young women who typically use the Ortho Evra birth control patch.
In spite of the company’s willingness to compensate victims as quickly as possible for the birth control patch injuries they have suffered, Johnson & Johnson is unlikely to be able to dispose of its Ortho Evra lawsuit problem so easily. According to Food and Drug Administration statistics, there have been 9,116 reports of adverse Ortho Evra side effects reports among users of the patch, a number the FDA says may represent only 1–10% of total Ortho Evra side effects. Thousands of women who have suffered birth control patch side effects may not even realize that Ortho Evra caused their condition. Because of this, legal experts say that the number of new Ortho Evra lawsuits will not decrease anytime soon, no matter how eager Johnson & Johnson is to settle them.
This fact was underscored in January 2006 when seven Ortho Evra lawsuits were filed against Johnson & Johnson over the course of a single day. The plaintiffs included Melody Miller, who suffered severe blood clots that eventually caused the miscarriage of her baby. Another woman, Tanya Lowe, experienced blood clots in her leg that eventually spread to her lungs. Other birth control patch side effects reported in the seven Ortho Evra lawsuits include excessive bleeding, heart pain and blood conditions that will require lifetime use of blood thinners.
These cases underscore a growing body of evidence that points to the severe health risks associated with the Ortho Evra patch. A 2004 New York Post article linked the Ortho Evra birth control patch with the deaths of more than a dozen women during a two-year period. A second article later that year found that the Ortho Evra patch caused 11 times as many blood clots as a birth control pill.
Documents that have come to light in one Ortho Evra lawsuit show that Johnson & Johnson’s own records indicate that it received 500 reports of serious Ortho Evra side effects between 2002 and 2004. The company’s records also show that although three times as many women were taking birth control pills during that period, only 61 reports of side effects were reported by users of the pill. This means that based on the company’s records, almost 25 times as many women experienced Ortho Evra side effects compared with users of birth control pills. Another report by the Associated Press found that users of the Ortho Evra patch faced 14 times the risk of blood clots than with birth control pills. Despite the elevated risk of birth control patch side effects, Johnson & Johnson has yet to issue an Ortho Evra recall.