B.C. gov't sues drug firm over
contraception patch

The B.C. government has filed legal action against the makers of the Evra contraception
patch for women to recover past and future health care costs.

The lawsuit claims Johnson & Johnson Inc. and other defendants "aggressively marketed
the contraceptive without disclosing the safety hazards associated with Evra."

The government claims users of Evra "did not receive any warnings about the increased
risk of developing blood clots, pulmonary emboli, strokes, heart attacks or deep vein
thrombosis associated with Evra ..."

The plaintiff claims Evra, the first skin patch approved for birth control by Health Canada
in 2002, contains the same amount of estrogen as most oral contraceptives but the
hormones from the transdermal patch go directly into the bloodstream while oral contraceptives are digested first, reducing the amount of estrogen that eventually enters the blood.

Ten years ago, doctors reviewing Evra clinical trials warned that blood clots could be a
problem if the patch was approved, the lawsuit claims.

The government claims that the defendants were negligent in failing to provide warnings
of the potential hazards of using Evra on package labels, failing to provide Health Canada
with complete and accurate information about the risks of Evra as it became available,
and failing to conduct any long-term studies of the risks of continued use of Evra.

The lawsuit also names as defendants McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc. and Janssen-Ortho
Inc.

Almost three years ago, a class-action lawsuit was filed by representative plaintiff
Jennifer Ansems against the defendants.

None of the allegations contained in the government's lawsuit or the class action have
been proven in court.

The province is seeking to recover past and future health care costs under the Health
Care Costs Recovery Act, which took effect April 1, 2009. Since then, the B.C.
government has recovered more than $3 million in health care costs.