The US pharmaceutical company Qualitest Pharmaceuticals has been sued by 113 new mothers who have sued it for millions of dollars due to unexpected pregnancies, despite taking the birth control pill.
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More than 100 US women have sued the Qualitest Pharmaceuticals for an alleged incorrect packaging of birth control pills which would lead them to unexpected pregnancies.
I am well 113 women, from 28 different states, they are asking million dollars in damages which include future property costs for the costs of raising a child to adulthood, including education owed to Qualitest, a subsidiary of Endo Pharmaceuticals. The birth control pills, which contain estrogen and progesterone, prevent the release of the eggs through a chemical trick that tricks the body into believing that it has already done so. According to the allegations, the contraceptives in question were packaged in the wrong order "rotated 180 degrees ... by reversing the orientation of the weekly tablet".
Consequentially, the women say they took sugar placebo pills – which are intended for the week of the menstrual cycle – leaving them “without adequate contraception” at the wrong time of the month. In September 2011, the packaging error prompted the manufacturing company to announce a voluntary recall of eight brands of birth control pills. At that time, Qualitest had reported themistake that had caused weekly orientationof the package which turned out to be reversed and obscured pill lot numbers and expiration dates on some packets.
In a statement to ABC News, Endo Pharmaceuticals said, “Our commitment is to patient safety and we take product quality very seriously. There are no new or recent product recalls. The recall in question was entirely voluntary and occurred more than four years ago in September 2011." The voluntary recall occurred on an extremely small number of pill packs that were manufactured by an outside contract manufacturer.
Endo was able to confirm only one blister that exhibited the defect and that it had been sold to a patient. Additionally, the judges dismissed cases arising from the recall, because the plaintiff could not establish that he had purchased a defective package. “Obviously everyone is good at defending themselves, especially when it comes to pharmaceutical giants” he notes John D'Agata, president of the "Rights Window", an association that for some time has also been involved in informing citizens of recalls and problems concerning the marketing of medicines. The fact is, however, that the American case constitutes a significant precedent in the matter which imposes the maximum attention to pharmaceutical causes also in the packaging of its products.
