Dangerous Drug and Recall News

The birth control market has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years for many reasons, and as a result of this phenomenon, companies have been putting enormous resources to work towards penetrating this market and this need by consumers.  One of the leading companies in this regard is Bayer Healthcare, and in 2006, they released a product that was seen as the next step in the development of dependable, easily managed birth control.  The product is known as Yaz, and it’s a follow-up product to Yasmin, which was released in 2001.  Unfortunately for too many women, Yaz has been linked to serious side effects, prompting Yaz lawyers from all over the United States to field incoming inquiries regarding these injuries.

One of the most common side effects that’s been linked to Yaz is the tendency for women to suffer from heart attacks as a result of using it.  Several different theories have been put forth as to the root cause of this problem, but it becomes even more daunting that experts have been unable to identify a specific cause for them.  Some of these theories include:

• The amount of estrogen released into the body can create an imbalance with the circulatory system
• Some women have had a history of heart-related problems and are more susceptible to heart attacks when using Yaz
• Some women have diabetes and/or high blood pressure, creating the same problems
• Obesity has also been linked to heart attacks with women who have used Yaz

Regardless of the specific conclusion, the reality is that there have been enough reports generated of this sort to prompt a public outcry from every corner of the United States.  As a result, 74 lawsuits as of this writing have been served upon Bayer Healthcare claiming injuries because of the use of both Yaz and Yasmin, and that number is expected to continue to rise.

If you are using Yaz and experience any of the following symptoms:

• Chest pains
• Shortness of breath
• General difficulty breathing
• Numbness in your extremities
• Dizziness

You need to contact your doctor immediately.  You should do the same if you experience any sort of abnormal symptoms, no matter how minor they may seem at the time and even if you have no medical history that would warrant a heightened sense of awareness to any problems.  If you have suffered a heart attack or any other injury as a result of using this product, you should also contact a Yaz lawyer as soon as possible to schedule a free initial consultation.

The birth control market has been enjoying a pattern of growth for many years and for many reasons, and it’s now at the point where every product that penetrates this market with a high degree of success can lead to billions of dollars in revenue.  Bayer Healthcare has enjoyed this sort of success with two products that are known as Yaz and Yasmin.  They are essentially the same product, but Yaz contains a smaller amount of estrogen, which is one of the active ingredients in this medication line.  Unfortunately, Yaz and Yasmin have been the subject of a growing number of inquiries received by defective drugs lawyers around the United States.

The reason for this uptick in inquiries is because of a growing number of reports that the use of Yaz and Yasmin has led to the development of serious side effects in the women who have used them.  These side effects are serious in nature, and the two most serious problems are the development of Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolisms.  Each of these conditions can be fatal if they are not detected early and treated properly.

DVT is a condition whereby a blood clot forms deep inside the tissue of the body, normally in the leg.  These clots tend to grow and eventually break off into the circulatory system, and many of them settle in the lungs.  When blood clots form in the lungs, they are known as pulmonary embolisms, and like DVT, they can be fatal.  The problem with these conditions is that no one expects them, which gives these issues time to develop and become more dangerous than they need to be.

The federal government has gotten involved at this point, and the FDA has not only required Bayer to affix a ‘Black Box’ warning to all labels of Yaz and Yasmin, but has also warned Bayer about potentially misleading advertisements that were being run that involved off-label uses of the medication.  Since then, Bayer has pulled the ads and agreed to spend $20 million in an effort to correct the previous misinformation.

Additionally, the FDA has cited Bayer for its manufacturing conditions, and competing studies are now being used to bolster each side’s position.  It should be noted, however, that the study Bayer is using was funded by the company itself.  In the meantime, the overall product line generated an estimated $1.8 billion in revenue during the past year.  All of this has led to at least 74 lawsuits being served on Bayer, and that number is expected to continue to rise.

If you or someone you love has been harmed as a result of using Yaz or Yasmin, you need to contact a defective drugs lawyer as soon as possible to schedule a free initial consultation.  You can start by contacting the Phillips National Injury Group today to get this process started.

Yaz is a birth control drug that’s manufactured by Bayer AG, and it is designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies in a new and unique way.  The medication works by prompting slight changes in the woman’s uterine wall and cervix such that if an egg is fertilized, it will not be able to attach to the uterus and to begin to grow and multiply into a fetus.  Additionally, the chances that an egg would be fertilized are extremely remote given that Yaz generally prevents women from ovulating in the first place.

Yaz enjoyed a large share of the market after it was introduced to consumers in the United States in 2001 after being approved by the FDA.  It was made available via prescription, and it was also used for certain off-label uses that included treatment of the symptoms of acne and the symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD.  These symptoms included anxiety, lack of sleep, irritability and dizziness.

Unfortunately, Yaz eventually began to be linked to the development of serious side effects in many women who were using it, and some of these Yaz side effects included:

• Heart attacks
• Kidney damage
• Pulmonary embolisms
• Strokes
• Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)

Of those side effects listed above, DVT generated a high level of concern given the difficulty in diagnosing the problem.  DVT is basically a blood clot that forms deep inside the leg, and in some rare cases the arm, but they do not always present outward symptoms that are easy for a doctor to spot.  However, when symptoms do present themselves, they can include:

• Swelling of the leg
• Pain in the affected leg
• Redness in the affected area
• Hot spots on the skin

If DVT is not treated, it can become extremely dangerous and even be fatal in some cases.  Enough of these reports were generated that the FDA ultimately required the manufacturer to place a “Black Box Warning” on all packages of Yaz that clearly warned users of the dangers involved with using it.

Many of those harmed as a result of using this medication also moved forward with Yaz lawsuits against the manufacturer.  If you have suffered as a result of using this medication, you too may have legal rights and options that need to be explored.  You’ll need to contact a defective drugs attorney to schedule an initial consultation, and during that consultation your attorney will look at the information you have regarding the situation and provide you with a recommendation.  Contact an attorney today.

As the birth control market continues to expand for many reasons, more women than ever before are searching for help to prevent unwanted pregnancies.  For many years, their options were limited, but in recent years, a plethora of choices hit the market.  One of the leading pharmaceutical companies, Bayer Healthcare, got into the fray with their product known as Yasmin.

Yasmin is a prescription drug that’s unique in terms of how it works inside the woman’s reproductive system.  In essence, it performs two tasks – it prevents ovulation and it prompts slight changes in the woman’s uterus and cervix.  Basically, if an egg is somehow fertilized despite the presence of the medication, it will not be able to attach to the uterine wall as most fertilized eggs do before they begin to expand and grow.  For a time, Yasmin produced positive results.

However, Yasmin eventually began to be linked to serious side effects, and these included:

• Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Kidney damage
• Pulmonary embolisms

The Yasmin side effects that seem to be most prevalent are somewhat related, and they are DVT and pulmonary embolisms.  The reason they are related is because one leads to another in many instances.  DVT is a condition whereby a blood clot forms deep inside the leg or sometimes the arm.  When these clots break off and make their way into the circulatory system, they often make their way into the lungs and attach to the tissue there, forming another clot.

Blood clots in the lungs are known as pulmonary embolisms.  Many of these clots are quite small and can be managed, but some grow quickly or are not caught early in their development.  As a result, pulmonary embolisms that are not properly and promptly treated can be deadly for the patient.  Clearly, these are dangerous conditions that can arise in otherwise-healthy women.

The FDA responded by announcing that Yasmin would be required to carry a “Black Box Warning” on all labels of the medication, and these warnings were meant to clearly warn anyone who sees them of the dangers involved.  Yasmin has not yet been recalled, which means that those consumers who have been injured by this medication need to find recourse by way of filing a Yasmin lawsuit.

If this has happened to you or someone you love, you need to look into taking the same action.  All you need to do is bring any information that pertains to your history of use of Yasmin, and your defective drugs attorney will be able to help you determine if filing a civil claim is an advisable step for you to take.  Contact an attorney today to schedule a consultation and to get this process started.

As the world of medical science made remarkable advances with heart-related procedures, more and more people began to have different forms of open heart surgeries to correct problems that for centuries had left patients with no hope whatsoever.  Even as surgical techniques and possibilities for healing advanced, however, one problem remained – controlling bleeding by the patient during these procedures.

In response to this need, companies began to introduce medications that were meant to help control this bleeding, and Bayer, A.G. introduced a drug that was approved in 1993 that soon penetrated the market with a high degree of depth.  The medication was known as Trasylol, and experts have estimated that millions of patients had this drug injected into their systems prior to surgery.

For several years, Trasylol appeared to work quite well.  However, the publication of a study by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2006 set off a chain reaction of discovery by patients and negative reports that ultimately led to the recall of the medication after much involvement by the FDA and the federal government.  The side effects included the following:

• Kidney failure
• Strokes
• Encephalopathy
• Heart attacks

Heart attacks proved to be the most prevalent of Trasylol side effects, and the study by the NEJM concluded that those who had heart surgery and had received an injection of Trasylol faced a much higher risk of heart attacks and other side effects than those who did not.  In addition, some estimates indicate that as many as 22,000 people died as a result of using this medication and another 11,000 required ongoing medical treatment.

The recall came about after the FDA requested that the manufacturer stop marketing Trasylol in 2007, and in 2008, the full recall was initiated.  While this likely saved lives, it did not help those who had already suffered.  As a result, Trasylol lawsuits were filed all over the United States, and if you have suffered as a result of using this medication, you may have that option as well.

If you’d like to explore those options, all you need to do is contact a defective drugs attorney to schedule a free initial consultation.  You’ll only need to gather whatever information relating to your injection of Trasylol that you can find, and your attorney will handle the details from there if you have a valid claim.  Contact an attorney today to get this process started.

Millions of people have gastrointestinal problems that lead to heartburn, but there are some whose problems are so severe that their symptoms are debilitating.  For many of those patients, several forms of medications have not proven to be effective, and that led to the prevalence of one drug that was introduced to the American market in 1999 by Baxter Pharmaceuticals.  This drug is known as Reglan.

Reglan is only available via prescription, and it works by providing a ‘boost’ to the reaction time of the muscles in the upper digestive tract, which results in food emptying into the intestines from the stomach after it’s ingested.  This speed of delivery helps patients avoid the painful symptoms of heartburn.  The active ingredient in Reglan, metoclopramide, was actually approved by the FDA in 1985, but Reglan was the highest-selling brand name that depended on metoclopramide to perform its basic functions.

Unfortunately, reports of Reglan side effects eventually began to surface, and initial examples of these side effects included:

• Depression
• High blood pressure
• Exacerbation of Parkinson’s Disease

However, one side effect began to dominate reports given its extreme severity, and that is known as Tardive Dyskinesia, or TD.  TD is a rare condition that remains somewhat of a mystery to the medical community, which only creates more problems for those who suffer from it.  Symptoms of TD include uncontrollable movements of different parts of the body that include:

• Tongue
• Mouth
• Face in general
• Limbs
• Trunk

TD is progressive in nature, which means that these movements increase in rapidity to the point where basic daily functions become impossible to complete.

In response to these reports, the FDA required Baxter to perform a ‘REMS’ study, which stands for Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Study.  The goal of a REMS study is to determine whether the benefits of a drug outweigh the risks and therefore decide whether that medication should remain on the market.

While this is occurring, defective drugs lawyers around the country are answering inquiries regarding the possibility of filing a Reglan lawsuit.  If you or someone you love has been injured as a result of using Reglan, you may have the option of pursuing a legal claim.  In order to get this process started, you simply need to contact a defective drugs attorney to review your situation.  Try to gather as much information as possible regarding when you started using Reglan, how long you used it, what side effects/symptoms developed and what medical care you needed as a result.

At that point, your attorney will be able to provide you with an opinion as to whether or not your claim would be valid, and if so, he or she will manage your situation for you so that you can focus on your recovery.  Therefore, you have only something to gain by inquiring about your rights, so get that process started today.

For centuries, depression and anxiety were conditions that were unfortunately downplayed by society in general.  In recent years and with several advances in the medical science industry, most people have come to realize that these are real conditions that present real problems for those who suffer from them.  As a result of the growing number of people being diagnosed with these conditions, new drugs began to hit the market.

One of these drugs is known as Paxil, which is manufactured by SmithKline Beecham, was approved for use in the United States by the FDA in 1999.  Paxil works by providing and maintaining a balance of serotonin that passes from cell to cell.  Serotonin is the body’s messenger that carries orders and messages through the central nervous system.  When there is a serotonin imbalance in a patient, it can lead to the development of depression and anxiety, and this is often referred to as a ‘chemical imbalance’ by non-medical professionals.

Paxil hit the market with a lot of promise given its early results, but eventually a series of Paxil side effects began to be reported by patients.  There were two side effects that gained early notice, but others soon followed that were just as serious.  The two initial discoveries included:

1. Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension (PPHN) – PPHN is a condition whereby the pressure in the lungs rises, and this rise in pressure makes it extremely difficult for oxygen to pass through the respiratory system.  The condition is particularly dangerous for children and infants, but almost regardless of age, those stricken with PPHN require ongoing intensive care.  PPHN can be fatal in several circumstances.
2. Heart birth defects - Another initial batch of reports concerned infants of mothers who had taken Paxil while pregnant being born with serious heart birth defects.  This was particularly true of those mothers who had taken Paxil during their first trimester of pregnancy.  Two of the most common side effects were atrial and ventricular sepatal defects.  These conditions occur when the wall between the two side of the heart is not properly developed, thus creating the need for immediate heart surgery.

In addition to these two side effects, reports also surfaced that Paxil users between the ages of 18 and 24 showed a troubling tendency to develop suicidal thoughts.

In response to these reports, the FDA required a Black Box Warning to be affixed to all containers of Paxil as well as requiring Paxil to be classified as a ‘Category D’ drug for pregnant women, which means that it is seen as particularly dangerous for unborn fetuses.

As a result of all of these problems, peole began to review their legal options, the first of which is filing a Paxil lawsuit.  While taking on a pharmaceutical giant can seem quite daunting, the fact is that those who were injured as a result of using Paxil needed only to contact an experienced defective drugs attorney and to provide him or her with all the information the patient could gather that was relevant to the situation.  Beyond that step, the attorney would generally be able to handle the claim and any other issues that arose.

Therefore, if you or someone you love has been injured as a result of using this drug, you need to do the same and contact a defective drugs attorney as soon as possible to schedule a free initial consultation.

The weight loss industry is booming, even in a down economy, as more and more people look to shed pounds for any number of reasons.  Many products that are marketed are those that offer consumers the chance to lose weight simply by using a product and without having to exercise or follow a nutritional plan on their own.  One of the leading products to penetrate this niche in recent years was a line of supplements known as Hydroxycut.

Hydroxycut is an entire line of products that were marketed heavily in the United States, and the promise attached to them was the ability to lose weight simply by taking these products.  In terms of how they worked, these products would raise the core temperature of the body, thereby increasing the speed of the metabolism and burning calories as a result.  Those who wanted to lose weight bought these products in high number and many body builders also decided to use Hydroxycut because of their tendency to burn fat without attacking lean muscle mass.

Unfortunately, serious side effects soon began to be linked to the use of Hydroxycut.  Most prominent among them were serious problems with consumers’ livers, and these included:

• Jaundice
• Dangerously high enzyme levels
• Liver failure

One person reportedly died as a result of using Hydroxycut, and as these reports were generated and the scrutiny increased, the makers of these products decided to initiate a full recall.  While this likely made the public safer, it did not address the needs that arose in those who were injured by these products.  Therefore, Hydroxycut lawsuits began to be filed around the United States, and many more could be filed soon.

It’s not yet known just how many people have suffered or could soon suffer from Hydroxycut side effects.  If you or someone you love has been harmed as a result of using these products, contact a defective drugs attorney as soon as possible to schedule an initial consultation.  Pursuing a claim is something that can be handled efficiently if you work with an experienced attorney, and all you need to get started is the information that pertains to your purchase and use of the products.  Contact an attorney today.

As the world of medical technology continues to advance, more and more tests and procedures are becoming common as people seek help with their varying maladies.  One of the technologies that’s become quite prominent in recent years is the MRI, which is a scan that’s much more accurate, visually helpful and advanced than the more traditional scans that are known as X-rays.

As MRI’s became more prominent, different companies began to formulate new products designed to provide doctors with more help in diagnosing patients on the basis of the results of MRI’s.  One such substance that was found to be of great help in MRI’s is gadolinium, which in its basic state is an element that appears on the International Periodic Table.  Gadolinium possesses properties that provide doctors with a visual contrast on MRI images that make injuries and potential problems much easier to spot.

For several years, gadolinium-containing products sold quite well and performed to their expectations.  Unfortunately, reports of serious gadolinium side effects eventually began to surface, and these reports led to scrutiny from several different sources.  Of the side effects that were reported, one condition above all others was most prevalent, and it’s a condition known as Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis, otherwise known as NSF.

NSF is an otherwise rare condition that has yet to be clearly solved because of both its rarity and its short time in existence.  Basically, those who suffer from NSF deal with symptoms that include the progressive hardening of the skin and ultimately decreased movement ability.  As NSF continues to advance, it can develop around joints and lead to broken bones in patients.

If you have had a gadolinium-containing agent injected into your system prior to an MRI and are experiencing any of the following symptoms:

• Tightening of the skin
• Bone pain
• Skin lesions
• Muscle weakness

You should seek immediate medical attention.

Additionally, if you have been injured as a result of using gadolinium, you may have the option of pursuing a gadolinium lawsuit, but you’ll need the proper guidance from a defective drugs attorney in order to properly make that decision.  If you’d like those answers, contact an attorney to schedule a free initial consultation.

As more and more people in the United States are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, more and more companies are working to formulate and market medication that’s intended to help treat the symptoms of the condition and to generally keep type 2 diabetes under control.  One such medication that hit the market with a high degree of promise is known as Avandia, which is manufactured by the pharmaceutical giant of GlaxoSmithKline.

Unfortunately, many who used Avandia eventually began to develop serious side effects, and these included:

• Severe allergic reactions
• Severe chest pain
• Strokes
• Heart attacks
• Death

Those who have been found to be in a position of high risk include anyone who has had a history of heart problems in the past.

Ultimately, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public health warning in regards to Avandia and the increased risk of heart attacks and other serious problems for those who were using it.  This announcement followed the publication of a study by the New England Journal of Medicine that concluded that those who used Avandia faced a higher risk of a heart attack by as much as 43 percent.

If you or someone you love has been harmed as a result of Avandia side effects, you have legal rights and options, but you’ll need to work with a defective drugs lawyer in order to obtain a full set of answers that directly relate to your situation.  If you and your attorney decide that filing an Avandia lawsuit is a sound decision, you’ll need to help your attorney get the process started by providing him or her with a few pieces of information.  These include:

• Documentation regarding your Avandia prescription
• Dates you took the medication
• Any medical records pertaining to problems you encountered as a result of using Avandia
• Any insurance documentation regarding your health situation that relates to your use of Avandia
• Any other information you think could be relevant

This is not an exhaustive list, and you’re only going to serve yourself better if you err on the side of over-inclusion when it comes to potential evidence.  After you’ve provided your defective drugs attorney with the information he or she needs, you can likely focus on your recovery and allow your attorney to handle your claim.  If you’ve suffered from the use of Avandia, contact an attorney today to schedule a free initial consultation.