One day following the protest by Essure victims outside its corporate offices, Bayer, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, has announced that it will stop selling its Essure birth control device by the end of 2018. Essure has long been accused of triggering severe health complications in women, including but not limited to chronic pain and bleeding and organ perforation, requiring surgical removal.
Attorney Erin Copeland, a partner at Fibich Leebron Copeland & Briggs has been at the forefront of the fight against Bayer on behalf of thousands of women who report significant injuries as a result of the Essure birth control device. She was one of only five attorneys nationwide appointed by the court to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the Essure JCCP currently pending in CA. She has also spoken at various legal conferences and litigation workshops across the country about Essure and the dangers associated with the product.
The Essure birth control device consists of two metal coils which are placed into a woman’s fallopian tubes. The coils are intended to agitate the reproductive tract and cause scar tissue to form around them, thereby blocking eggs and sperm from coming into contact. The device has been extremely problematic for many women. Some women suffered unexpected side effects so severe — like the migration of the device into other parts of the body and agonizing menstrual cycles — that the Essure device had to be removed through surgery. The device was never intended to be removed.
While Bayer had previously pulled Essure from the market in all other countries, it continued to sell the device for implantation in women in the US. Today, it announced its decision to finally stop selling Essure in the US.
FDA Intervenes with Growing Essure Concerns
Following pressure from the public, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened an advisory committee meeting in September 2015 to discuss the safety and effectiveness of the Essure device. Following that meeting, the FDA announced it would require a black box warning on Essure and a multi-page patient decision checklist outlining the risks associated with the device. The checklist was an unprecedented move which the FDA stated was intended to better inform patients and healthcare providers about the risks associated with Essure.
Despite the black box warning and patient decision checklist that was formally implemented in October 2016, the FDA determined that patients were still not being adequately warned of the risks associated with the Essure device. Therefore, in April 2018, the FDA restricted the sale and distribution of the Essure device to only doctors and healthcare facilities who would agree to review the Patient Decision Checklist with their patients and give patients an opportunity to sign it.
Today, Bayer announced it was going to stop selling the Essure device in the US. Bayer had previously discontinued the sale of Essure in other markets. It is unknown why it waited so long to stop selling to women in the US. “Bayer claims its decision to stop selling the Essure device has nothing to do with the product’s safety or effectiveness. Whatever their excuse is, we’re just happy to see this dangerous product go away so that no other unsuspecting women have it implanted and suffer the life changing consequences of that decision,” Attorney Erin Copeland.
Bayer Insistent On Avoiding Liability
While it would appear to product safety organizations that Bayer is halting its sales of Essure due to safety concerns, the pharmaceutical giant did not concede as much. Instead, the company cited a significant decline in Essure sales and remarked the product was not generating enough revenue to continue it on the market. Once it is pulled from American “shelves,” Essure will no longer have a presence in any pharmaceutical markets around the world.
At Fibich, Leebron, Copeland & Briggs, our product liability and pharmaceutical liability attorneys have been championing claims for the wrongfully injured in Texas since 1992. The Essure litigation is the latest in a long history of legal battles against the medical device and pharmaceutical industry for corporate wrongdoing. Attorney Erin Copeland has been at the forefront of the legal fight against Bayer on behalf of women across the country who have suffered injuries from the Essure device. She is one of only five attorneys nationwide who were appointed by the court to serve on the Essure Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in California and lead the litigation against Bayer.
If you or a loved one have been injured due to an Essure contraceptive, call 713.999.3681 or contact our Houston dangerous drug lawyer online to begin your claim.
