Local Law Firms Home > Product Liability News > Bayer Faces Mirena Product Liability Lawsuit

Bayer Faces Mirena Product Liability Lawsuit

Pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG is facing a potential class-action product liability lawsuit filed by a Pennsylvania woman who claims the company did not properly disclose the health risks of their Mirena birth control system.

Mirena is a contraceptive that is labeled as an intrauterine device (IUD), which can prevent pregnancies for up to five years. It is a plastic device that uses hormones to prevent pregnancies. The target market is women who have already had children. Around two million women in the U.S. are users of the Mirena IUD.

Pennsylvania resident Tricia Prendergast filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which is located in Philadelphia. The lawsuit charges Bayer with failing to warn consumers of the risk of device embedment and ectopic pregnancy.

Prendergast was suffering from complications related to the device and was forced to have the device removed surgically. The lawsuit specifically mentions risks of an ectopic pregnancy, which is a pregnancy that occurs outside the womb. It also mentions that Bayer did not provide warnings for complications that could require a hysterectomy.
Plaintiff seeks unspecified compensatory damages, along with a demand for punitive damages. A petition has additionally been filed to consolidate all Mirena lawsuits as class-action multidistrict litigation.

Many such Mirena lawsuits have been filed nationwide, alleging serious side-effects such as perforation of the uterus or cervix, pelvic pain, and pelvic inflammatory disease. This is in addition to the ectopic pregnancy and embedment dangers mentioned by Prendergast in her lawsuit. Some consumers have also warned that it may cause infertility, while others have charged that Bayer has overstated its effectiveness as a contraceptive.

The main charge in this particular product liability lawsuit filed by Tricia Prendergast is that Bayer did not provide a warning for these possible side-effects on the label, and instead marketed the device as a safe IUD.