Critics also point out that these records do not accurately portray the number of women injured by the patch because according to the FDA, at best, only 10% of all adverse events get reported to the agency.
In attempt to manage the mounting number of lawsuits filed in federal courts, on March 1, 2006, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued a transfer order to consolidated the pre-trial proceedings of 13 federal lawsuits filed by plaintiffs in different states, along with 54 potentially related actions pending in multiple federal districts.
The Panel assigned the cases to US District Judge, David Katz, of the Northern District of Ohio, in part, because he was already handling the first federal Ortho patch related lawsuit.
That move seemed to push J&J toward settling even more cases out-of-court. On May 2, 2006, at the very first status conference in the Ohio court, Johnson & Johnson attorney, Robert Tucker, informed Judge Katz that the company was prepared to settle cases with plaintiffs who were hospitalized for heart attacks, stroke, pulmonary embolisms or deep vein thrombosis, according Charles Toutant, in the May 16, 2006 New Jersey Law Journal.
Attorney, Ellen Relkin, a member of the plaintiffs' executive committee for the federal case, told the Journal "many of these cases are seven figures, many are probably substantial six-figure cases."
"It's not like a Vioxx, where you have clients in their 50s, 60s, 70s," said attorney, David Eisenbrouch, who represents plaintiffs. "You're dealing with primarily very young women, and J&J would rather cut its losses," he told the Journal.
Also on May 2, 2006, in a coordinated blitz, another Johnson & Johnson attorney, Susan Sharko, sent a letter to New Jersey Judge, Peter Bariso, to inform him that she had reached confidential settlements with 11 of the 12 plaintiffs involved in litigation in New Jersey.
An important point to keep in mind according to legal experts, is that as J&J quietly settles all these cases out-of-court with little or no fanfare, by design, the time limits for filing a lawsuit are slowly but surely ticking away for many persons who may have no idea that the Ortho Evra patch is the cause of an injury or death.
The applicable statute of limitation vary from state to state and in some states a personal injury claim might need to be filed within 3 years from the date an injury is diagnosed, while a wrongful death claim might need to be filed within 2 years from the date of a death. In some states, experts say, the time may be as short as 1 year from the date of diagnosis or death.
On May 13, 2006, the LA Times did get around to reporting that J&J had entered into confidential settlement agreements with about 30 women, quoting a plaintiff's attorney, Ray Chester, who negotiated the agreements in cases filed in state courts in New Jersey, Texas and California, and federal courts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
"Johnson & Johnson is going to lose most of these cases," Mr Chester said in the Times. "The cost to defend them and the public relations hit they would take if they tried the cases," he stated, "has tilted them toward settling."
"It is abundantly clear," Mr Chester added, "that the patch causes more clots than the pill."
Its all good and well that the Times published this story but the reporting is old news, because according to Mr Chester, J&J began settling these cases back in January which means the company was somehow able to conceal the fact that it was in essence admitting guilt in 30 cases, for about 5 months.
One case that was settled with a confidentiality agreement involved the first fatality attributed to the patch in the media which occurred on April 2, 2004, when 18-year-old Zakiya Kennedy collapsed in New York City while waiting for the subway.
The people who did catch the story about this 18-year-old dying so suddenly the few times it appeared were not surprisingly shocked. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was a blood clot called a pulmonary embolism that had moved to the lung as a direct result of using the Ortho Evra patch, the coroner ruled.
The New York Post was about the only major newspaper that covered the story in-depth.
No woman should put these poisons on their skin or ingest birthcontrol pills. I started the pills in 1976 and within several months was having 4-5 migraines a week.It was seven years before the damage was corrected and the migraines ceased though I had ceased the pills immediately. Fortunately, I read that week I stopped that they had never been sufficiently tested by endocrinoligists!! I stopped IMMEDIATELY. Profits the game, not your health.Never had headaches in my life, I was 36 then.I learned of other horrors from women who took the pills. Women must take control of their bodies and listen to intuition. Nature did not intend these artificial methods or poisons to enter our bodies and disrupt natural rhythms. Let men take the burden for a while and not have women making it so easy for them to have unlimited and undisciplined sexual relations. Many other less harmful methods. That this company continues to foster the patch onto women, whose primary goal always is to please their man, is evil and cruel knowing of their subsequent threat to life.
Boycott, ban these patches!!! Most everything marketed on TV is suspect. Learn the natural way to good health, keep manufactuted poisons out of your bodies except where it is a matter of life and death. Drugs are crippling the people of this nation. Read Kevin Trudeau's book "Natural Cures THEY don't want you to know about."
by
Starchild (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments)
on Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 8:37:02 AM
THIS IS NOT NEWS! It is a blatant advertisement by a lawfirm
This is not a "news" article, nor it it an op-ed -- it is a blatant advertisement for Lawyers and Settlements.com! How irresponsible for opednews.com to accept and post such a submission. Is there no editorial board that reviews submissions???
PALEEZE!
by
Janet (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, September 22, 2006 at 1:04:51 PM
Then could you please direct readers to a mainstream media sources that has published the information I have found during my investigation and included in this report?
I am not a shill for attorneys and I could care less about waht attorneys make. I am a shill for anyone who has been harmed by the gigantic pharmaceutical industry and who don't have a chance of getting one thin dime going up against a drug company alone.
If the mainstream media would do its job instead of trading its soul to the highest bidder under the guise of "advertising dollars," also known as bribes, to keep its mouth shut about the harm these drug companies do to the average Americans, reporters like myself would not have to find other forums to get the word out.
Evelyn Pringle
by
Evelyn Pringle (186 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Friday, September 22, 2006 at 1:40:06 PM
THIS IS NOT NEWS! It is a blatant advertisement by a lawfirm
It is NOT that the subject matter is not news -- indeed it is. But to use that lead (500 Ortho-Evra Birth Control Patch Victims Sue Johnson & Johnson) and to end with a link to the law firm...hey, wait a minute -- all of your "artilces" end with that link to lawyersandsettlements.com/...are you on their payroll?!?!?
by
Janet (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, September 22, 2006 at 2:34:37 PM
I get offered a topic and if I want to investigate it and submit a report, I take the job. My investigation is all my own and not a word of my work is edited by anyone.
The headline you mention is straight out of the company's latest SEC filing and I think it is highly newsworthy. Furthermore, if there are 500 more young women out there that have been injured by this patch, that this company knew caused this problem, I hope they sue the company as well.
As far as caring if people know that I get paid by the online marketing firm listed at the bottom of the article, I obviously am not trying to hide the identity of the firm that commissioned me to write the report and I really don't care who knows.
Again, if you can direct readers to a mainstream media source that will alert the public to all of the information that I dug up and included in my report, please do so I can move on to another topic.
Cheers,
Evie
by
Evelyn Pringle (186 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 10 comments)
on Friday, September 22, 2006 at 3:57:10 PM
