Drug Warning: Ortho Evra

Manufactured and marketed by: Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical

Purpose: A contraceptive device for women in the form of a patch that is attached to the skin.

Side Effects Reported

• There have been reports suggesting that women who use the Ortho Evra patch may suffer from blood clots and die at a rate three times as high as those women who use traditional birth control pills.
• According to the Associated Press, federal death and injury reports obtained through a Freedom of Information Act filing have indicated that at least twelve women died in 2004 from blood clots that may be linked to the use of the Ortho Evra patch.
• The majority of the women who died while using the patch were suspiciously young, as they were only in their late teens or early twenties.
• It is believed that many women have suffered other blood clot related problems such as strokes and heart attacks, which were serious but not fatal.

Industry Report

Recently, reports have been featured in various media outlets indicating that women who use the Ortho Evra patch may be exposed to approximately 60% more of the hormone estrogen than women who continue to use traditional birth control pills. Ortho McNeil and the FDA have added a new warning to the label of the Ortho Evra patch recently, addressing this potentially serious problem. The new FDA black box warning label concerns the increase in levels of estrogen that are found in the users of the Ortho Evra patch.

As a result of the extremely harmful side effects that may result from the use of the Ortho Evra patch, a number of lawsuits have already been filed on behalf of many women who have suffered injury or died allegedly from the use of the Ortho Evra patch.

Check out more drug injury information on Ortho Evra:

• Litigation

Seeger Weiss is not currently pursuing lawsuits on this drug, but its drug warnings will remain on our radar.

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