More than 300 women are attempting to sue Bayer after it issued a recall on a batch of faulty contraceptive pills, linked to a packaging error in 2024, report EWN.
The mix-up saw packs of the pill – Yaz Plus – being accidentally filled with hormone-free placebo pills, meaning women taking the affected batch may have had no contraceptive protection for almost a month.
The women have now approached approached LHL Attorneys, who said the consequences could be significant for anyone who fell pregnant because of this.
“It is quite a serious error because effectively it’s inverted the whole sequence that a normal blistered pack would have had and essentially provided no contraceptive efficacy,” said LHL Attorneys lawyer Angelique Pienaar.
“Where this has resulted in a pregnancy, there are financial expenses associated with that… all costs that someone now has to incur, for which they have specifically not planned.”
The firm was working with the women who had come forward to obtain medical and pharmacy records to established whether there was a sufficient link between the defective contraceptive and their pregnancies., she added.
“So far, more than 300 women have reached out to us.”
Bayer and SAHPRA formally recalled the affected batch after the error was identified, which Pienaar said was important because it confirmed there had been a defect in the affected batch.
It will now be up to the lawyers to establish that any resulting pregnancy was linked to the defective contraceptive, rather than simply being an unintended pregnancy that occurred while using contraception.
According to SAPHRA, YAZ has a failure rate of 1 % per year when taken correctly.
Pienaar said the high efficacy rate works in their favour. “If you look at the way the mix-up occurred where you have 24 placebo tablets, that means there's essentially almost a month-long window where someone would have had no contraception at all.”
EWN article – Over 300 women join legal fight over faulty contraceptive pill (Restricted access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Contraceptive pills recalled in SA after packaging ‘mix-up’
FDA warning after recall of contraceptive pill batches