11 Women Sue Johnson & Johnson and Other Companies for Ortho Evra Personal Injuries
A recent personal injury lawsuit in which 11 women claimed that Johnson & Johnson did not disclose information about the Ortho Evra birth control patch causing their personal injuries, which included blood clots and strokes, provides another example of the growing mistrust with pharmaceutical companies.
Specifically, the personal injury attorneys of these 11 women from various states filed a personal injury lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on February 9th against Johnson & Johnson and other companies who produced, marketed and sold this prescription birth control patch. These women, ages 19-42, claim that the Ortho Evra patch led to all of them experiencing blood clots. One woman also suffered a stroke while six of these women experienced a pulmonary embolism, according to the product liability lawsuit.
In addition to these Ortho Evra personal injuries, the women claim that the defendants knew about these increased risk factors of blood clots and strokes, and failed to disclose the information until four years after the product's 2002 release. According to California personal injury attorney Brian Kabateck, Johnson & Johnson intentionally concealed its own studies allegedly showing that women using this patch were twice as likely to experience blood clots, strokes or other similar reactions.
Kabateck added that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn the public about these increased risks, which consequently led to thousands of women suffering severe Ortho Evra personal injuries or even death! In fact, Kabateck said the company downplayed Ortho Evra side effects as being limited to minor symptoms like nausea, headaches and a skin reaction where applied.
It has been estimated that the Ortho Evra Patch has been prescribed to more than four million women in the United States since becoming commercially available more than four years ago. According to this California personal injury lawsuit, Ortho Evra is one of the most popular brand-name birth control prescriptions in the country, and is the only marketed as the once-a-week birth control patch.
Like oral birth control pills, the Ortho Evra Patch aims to prevent pregnancies by preventing ovulation, thickening the cervical mucus and changing the endometrium to limit the chance of implantation. Kabateck alleges that Johnson & Johnson and the other defendants did not mention that Ortho Evra delivers 60% more estrogen to women than oral contraceptives; a percentage that he says has been proven to increase the risks for these alleged Ortho Evra personal injuries.
The 11 women claiming these Ortho Evra personal injuries in this product liability lawsuit are from California, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, New York, Georgia and Indiana. Stay updated on the latest developments in this personal injury lawsuit at The Injury Blog.
Ultimately, this product liability lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson is representative of a growing concern about many modern pharmaceutical companies. Too often, news reports are detailing investigative studies in which pharmaceutical companies have been shown to know about the dangerous side effects of their drugs and have kept this information private in order to protect profits rather than consumer safety.
Whether it's a recent story in The New York Times disclosing how Eli Lilly and Company knew that its top-selling Zyprexa drug for psychiatric problems increased the risk factors of diabetes and actually encouraged employees to keep this information quiet, or even this lawsuit, such cases do not do much for the public's trust toward pharmaceutical companies.
If you believe that your personal injuries are the result of a defective drug, speak to a personal injury attorney in your area as soon as possible.