Bayer sued over contraceptive pill

WILLSTAETT – “If I’d known, I’d never have taken this pill,” says Felicitas Rohrer, who is suing German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer, claiming its oral contraceptive Yasminelle caused her to suffer a pulmonary embolism.

The accusations against Bayer’s contraceptive pills Yasminelle and Yaz, based on drospirenone, are not new and the company has already paid out nearly two billion dollars (1,8 billion euros) to around 10 000 women in out-of-court settlements in the United States to avoid long and costly trials.

But Rohrer’s case, which opens on Thursday, is highly symbolic in the company’s home country of Germany, where Bayer, maker of Aspirin, stands as a beacon for the domestic chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors.

Rohrer is suing the company for 200 000 euros (US$220 000) in damages and interest.

But “the money cannot compensate for what I and other women have gone through,” she told AFP.

“What I really hope for is justice,” she said in her home in Willstaett, not far from the French-German border, adding that her hope is for Yasminelle to be withdrawn from the market.

At the age of 31, and following a pulmonary embolism – a blockage of the lung’s main artery – Rohrer now has to take an anti-coagulant that significantly reduces her chances of having a baby.

She suffers from shortness of breath and is forced to wear anti-embolism compression stockings on car journeys of any length.

She studied to become a vet but now works as a journalist because she is not allowed to carry any heavy loads. It was in June 2009 that Rohrer, up to then a perfectly healthy young woman, suddenly collapsed. Her heart stopped for 20 minutes. And in an emergency operation, doctors found massive blood clots clogging her heart.

“The doctors couldn’t believe that a 25-year-old woman could suffer from a pulmonary embolism,” she said.

And the doctors clearly pointed the finger at the pill.

The self-help group Rohrer has since set up has collected testimony from around 250 women who suffered similar side effects.

She is the first person in Germany to sue Bayer over the drug, accusing the company of not informing patients sufficiently about the risks associated with Yasminelle.

The trial opens on Thursday in a court in Waldshut-Tiengen near the Swiss border.

Bayer – which sold 768 million euros worth of the Yasmin group of contraceptive pills in 2014, compared with total overall group sales of 42 billion euros – rejects the accusations as “unjustified”.

It insists the pills have a “positive” risk-benefit profile and are approved by every national drug agency.

So far, the courts have agreed, notably in a case brought against Bayer in Switzerland.