Our firm has recently filed a number of lawsuits against Ortho McNeil, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, the makers of the popular birth control patch Ortho Evra. Two of these lawsuits involve young women in their twenties who suffered strokes after using the Ortho Evra Patch for several months. A third lawsuit involves a woman who suffered deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in her lower left leg and multiple pulmonary emboli in both lungs after using Ortho Evra. There continues to be strong evidence that the risk of these blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes associated with Ortho Evra is significantly higher than with birth control pills. Before U.S. approval in 2001, the FDA expressed concern about Ortho Evra, saying:

Post-marketing surveillance for DVT (Deep Venous Thrombosis) and PE (Pulmonary Embolism) events will be important, as there are potential serious adverse risks (with two cases of pulmonary emboli in the clinical trials) with this new delivery system for contraception.

The “delivery system” that the FDA mentions involves Ortho Evra being released directly into the blood stream, as opposed to the “delivery system” for a birth control pill, which is ingested and metabolized by the body. These differences can create very serious risks for Ortho Evra users. We will continue to update you on new developments in this litigation in future issues. Chad Cook and Frank Woodson are the primary lawyers in our firm working on Ortho Evra cases.