Latest news with #Depo-Provera
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
400 Women Are Suing Pfizer Over Birth Control Shot That Allegedly Gave Them Brain Tumors
Recent research has linked Pfizer's widely-used Depo-Provera birth control shot to massively increased risk of developing brain tumors — and hundreds of women are suing the pharmaceutical giant over it. According to a press release filed on behalf of the roughly 400 plaintiffs in the class action suit, the lawsuit claims that Pfizer and other companies that made generic versions of the injectable contraceptive knew of the link between the shot and the dangerous tumors, but didn't properly warn users. The suit follows a study published by the British Medical Journal last year that found that people who took the progestin-based shot for a year or more were up to 5.6 times more likely to develop meningioma, a slow-building brain tumor that forms, per the Cleveland Clinic, on the meninges, or layers of tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. Though Pfizer attached warning labels about meningioma to Depo-Provera sold in Canada in 2015 and the UK, Europe, and South Africa after the 2024 study was published, no such label was deployed in the United States — a failure which according to the lawsuit is "inconsistent [with] global safety standards." In an interview with the website DrugWatch, one of the suit's plaintiffs, who was identified by the initials TC, said that she had been "told how great Depo-Provera was" and decided to start it after an unplanned pregnancy that occurred when she'd taken the since-discontinued birth control pill Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo. "I thought it would be more reliable and convenient since I wouldn't have to take it daily," TC told the site, referencing the four annual injections Depo-Provera requires. "I had no idea it would lead to such serious health problems." After being on the contraceptive shot for three years — and experiencing intense headaches, months-long uterine bleeding, and weight gain — the woman finally consulted her doctor and was diagnosed with meningioma. She's since been undergoing treatment and experienced some relief, but even that experience has been "physically and emotionally draining" because she has to get regular MRIs to monitor the tumor, which likely isn't fatal but still greatly affects her quality of life. "It's a constant worry that the tumor might grow," TC said, "and the appointments feel never-ending." That fear was echoed by others who spoke to the Daily Mail about their meningioma diagnoses after taking Depo-Provera. Unlike TC, Andrea Faulks of Alabama hadn't been on the shots for years when she learned of her brain tumors, which caused her years of anguish. Faulks told the British website that she'd begun taking the medication back in 1993, the year after it was approved by the FDA in the United States. She stopped taking it only a few years later, but spent decades having splitting headaches and experiencing dizziness and tremors. After being dismissed by no fewer than six doctors, the woman finally got an MRI last summer and learned that she had a brain tumor — and is now undergoing radiation to shrink it after all this time. "I know this is something I'm going to have to live with for the rest of my life, as long as I live," Faulks told the Daily Mail. Currently, the class action case against Pfizer on behalf of women like Faulks and TC is in its earliest stages as attorneys representing those hundreds of women with brain tumors start working to make them whole. Even if they receive adequate payouts, however, that money won't take away their suffering, or give them back the years of their life lost to tumors they should have been warned about. More on injectables: This Sleazy GLP-1 Prescription Site Is Using Deepfaked "Before-and-After" Photos of Fake Patients, and Running Ads Showing AI-Generated Ozempic Boxes
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) Ends Acepodia Partnership Amid Depo-Provera Legal Woes
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is navigating a period of strategic upheaval and legal scrutiny as it ends its clinical collaboration with Acepodia and faces mounting lawsuits over its contraceptive, Depo-Provera. The decision to mutually terminate the partnership with Acepodia, which focused on autoimmune disease drug development, is attributed to PFE's global resource prioritization and not to Acepodia's capabilities. The wind-down is expected to have no impact on Acepodia's clinical programs, with both companies leaving open the possibility of future collaboration. Pixabay/Public Domain Simultaneously, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is embroiled in multidistrict litigation involving approximately 400 lawsuits alleging the company failed to adequately warn about the risk of brain tumors linked to long-term Depo-Provera use. Recent studies have intensified scrutiny, and hearings are scheduled as the company faces accusations of prioritizing profits over patient safety. Despite these challenges, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)'s performance has remained stable, mirroring broader market trends. However, investor sentiment is cautious: the company's total shareholder return fell 11.11% over the past year, underperforming the US pharmaceuticals sector's 10.5% decline. Analysts note that the current share price reflects these uncertainties, with only a marginal upside projected, underscoring the importance of future earnings and revenue growth for PFE's outlook. While we acknowledge the potential of PFE to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PFE and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None.
Khaleej Times
24-03-2025
- Health
- Khaleej Times
End of US aid poses death threat to women and girls in Africa
Zimbabwean mother Getrude Mucheri had walked miles in the rain to get her expired contraceptive implant removed and a Depo-Provera birth control injection instead. But the 35-year-old mother, who relies on free family-planning services, was out of luck when she arrived at the Chitakatira health clinic in eastern Zimbabwe. Nurses at the public health facility, which is outside the city of Mutare and supported by charities including Population Services Zimbabwe, said they had run out of stock for that day. "I am stressed. I do not have money to buy birth control pills," Mucheri told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I cannot have more children. I am even struggling to feed the ones I have," said the unemployed mother of four. Mucheri is among millions of women worldwide who rely on free contraceptives from aid programmes that have been plunged into turmoil since President Donald Trump gutted the US Agency for International Development, a key global donor. Lydia Zigomo, regional director for the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA, said the cuts would have "severe consequences" with hundreds of thousands in east and southern Africa losing access to contraception. "Many countries in the region are expected to run out of contraceptives and life-saving maternal medicines within the next three to six months," Zigomo said by email. "Given that countries like South Sudan, the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Madagascar already have high maternal mortality rates, the withdrawal of funding will have catastrophic consequences," Zigomo said. The immediate loss of US funding for UNFPA in DRC, South Sudan and Ethiopia came to about $4 million, she said, noting that many local health providers had also lost US funding. "With the US freeze, the entire ecosystem for improving sexual, reproductive, maternal, neo-natal, child and adolescent health has been compromised." Violence against women, maternal mortality and unplanned pregnancies would all increase, while menstrual hygiene and pregnancy-related care would suffer, she added. Longer term, there will be more sexually transmitted infections and unsafe abortions. Child marriage and teen pregnancies could also rise as families fall into poverty. And there would be major disruptions in the supply chain for contraceptives and reproductive health medicines, Zigomo said. Unsafe pregnancies Pester Siraha, a country director at Population Services Zimbabwe, an affiliate of Marie Stopes International, said the USAID cuts violate women's rights. "This is a cruel decision," she said. "The sudden suspension created a lot of chaos and uncertainty. Sudden stoppage of services without notice is not ethically right." In 2024, USAID provided up to $360 million for health and agriculture programmes in Zimbabwe, whose own government has underfunded healthcare for decades. Each year, the health budget falls far short of the target set in the 2001 Abuja Declaration, in which African Union governments committed to spend at least 15 per cent of national budgets on health services. Zimbabwe's deputy health minister Sleiman Kwidini said the government had been buying its own family planning supplies through the National Pharmaceutical Company, a government agency, with funding from donors. "We have enough supplies and stock to provide family planning services around the country," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, without giving further details. Siraha said more than half of all funding for sexual and reproductive health services in Zimbabwe came from USAID, so the cuts would inevitably boost unplanned pregnancies. "(This leads) to unsafe abortions and maternal mortality. Teenage pregnancies lead to school dropouts and worsen the higher percentage of teenagers dying during delivery," she said. In January, Trump also recommitted to two international anti-abortion pacts, cutting all US family planning funds for foreign organisations that provide or promote abortions. Jobs lost The fallout from the aid cuts is already rippling through Zimbabwe: thousands of health workers were told via WhatsApp to vacate work premises in late January after Trump's executive orders kicked in, according to some of those affected. A 29-year-old single mother of two, who did not want to give her name for fear of reprisals, said on the eve of January 28, she was told not to report for work the following day at a USAID-funded not-for-profit organisation providing sexual health services to young girls in Gokwe, in Midlands Province. "I signed for unpaid leave. The last salary and savings is the one that I am using for all expenses and upkeep of my family," she said. "I am trying to find ways to get income. I am buying and selling clothes and food, but it is not yielding much." Ekenia Chifamba, director of Shamwari Yemwanasikana, a community-based organisation that promotes girls' rights, said the cuts were "unbearable" as they affected whole families. "It is quite devastating and disturbing," she said. Zigomo said UNFPA was seeking alternate funding, be it engaging with national governments, asking more of other donors or tapping the private sector and philanthropic organisations. It is also trying to mobilise civil society and grassroots organisations to push for local solutions and funding. "Despite these efforts, it appears highly unlikely that most (east and southern African) countries will mobilise resources to fill in the gaps ... in the short term," she said. "There remains an urgent need for sustainable and predictable funding to prevent a devastating rollback in progress on women's health and rights."
Reuters
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US judge regrets creating bias concerns over call for women lawyers
March 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Florida has acknowledged that she created the appearance of bias when she stated that women needed to be adequately represented among the lawyers who would be assigned to serve as the leadership team in mass tort litigation over the hormonal contraceptive drug Depo-Provera. Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited that acknowledgment by U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in Pensacola in an order dated Thursday, opens new tab dismissing an ethics complaint by a conservative activist. "Although I have never engaged in impermissible discrimination when selecting attorneys for MDL leadership positions or in any other facet of my work, I acknowledge that my statements could be construed as creating a preference for female attorney representation in leadership positions during the selection process," Rodgers said in a letter. Mike Davis, an ally of Republican President Donald Trump who heads the Article III Project, had filed the ethics complaint with the 11th Circuit Judicial Council last month over statements Rodgers made during the first case management conference in the multidistrict litigation. At least 78 lawsuits so far have been consolidated before Rodgers alleging that Pfizer's Depo-Provera, or its generic equivalents, can cause users to develop one or more meningiomas, a type of brain tumor. The company denies the claims. During a February 21 hearing to discuss the appointment of lead counsel, Rodgers expressed her views on the need for diversity and told lawyers for the plaintiffs that "females need to be adequately represented in your leadership." A subsequent order stated that the judge "prefers a balanced leadership team that reflects diversity of all types and, in particular, leadership should reflect the diversity of the individual plaintiffs." Davis argued those statements by the judge, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, constituted impermissible bias as they suggested sex would be a relevant factor in selecting lead counsel for the MDL, rather than merit. Pryor, a conservative and fellow appointee of Bush, said the judicial code of conduct and the U.S. Constitution bar judges from engaging in sex-based discrimination, including by giving preferences to lawyers for leadership positions based on sex. He pointed to a statement conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito wrote in 2013 when the justices declined to hear a case involving Sirius XM Radio. Alito at the time took issue with the "unique" practice now-deceased U.S. District Judge Harold Baer in Manhattan had of urging lead law firms in class actions to staff the lawsuits with women and minority lawyers. Pryor said that what had been a "unique" practice "has since been touted as a 'best practice' in multidistrict litigation," as "commentators openly encourage judges who preside over these actions to consider impermissible characteristics." But he said the complaint against Rodgers should be dismissed after she acknowledged the concerns created by her statements and took steps to address them. Following Davis' complaint, Rodgers issued a new order making clear any attorney could apply to lead the MDL, without any reference to their sex. She told applicants she would consider them solely on "individual merit." Davis in a statement on Friday called the decision "a victory for judicial integrity."
Associated Press
18-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
INVESTIGATION ALERT: Berger Montague PC Investigates Pfizer Inc.'s Board Of Directors For Breach of Fiduciary Duties (NYSE: PFE)
Berger Montague advises shareholders of Pfizer Inc. ('Pfizer' or the 'Company') (NYSE: PFE) about an investigation into Pfizer's Board of Directors for potential breaches of fiduciary duties to Pfizer and its shareholders in connection with the Company's marketing and sale of Depo-Provera. Shareholders of Pfizer may learn more about this investigation by contacting Berger Montague: Radha Raghavan at [email protected] or (332) 271-8908, or Andrew Abramowitz at [email protected] or (215) 875-3015 or visit: Berger Montague's investigation is focused on whether Pfizer's Board of Directors breached its fiduciary duties in the manner in which it oversaw the Company's marketing and sale of Depo-Provera, an injectable used for contraception or to treat endometriosis, as well as other indications. Sources have reported on potential links between long-term use of the Depo-Provera and an increased risk of meningiomas, a type of brain tumor. Berger Montague, with offices in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Delaware, Washington, D.C., San Diego, San Francisco and Chicago, has been a pioneer in shareholder litigation since its founding in 1970. Berger Montague has represented individual and institutional investors for over five decades and serves as lead counsel in courts throughout the United States. Contacts: Radha Raghavan, Associate Berger Montague (332) 271-8908 Berger Montague (215) 875-3015
