Litigation against Merck & Co. over allegations that its NuvaRing birth control device posed sometimes fatal side effects has come to an end, thanks to a final settlement in the matter.
As discussed in a previous blog post, Merck agreed to a $100 million settlement in February 2014 intended to compensate thousands of women who filed defective device claims in state and federal courts, with the contingency that the company could abandon the agreement if fewer than 95% of the plaintiffs eligible to participate failed to opt in. Although the federal court judge overseeing the consolidated cases approved the arrangement in February, the settlement only became final last week when lawyers on both sides confirmed to the Washington Post and other news outlets that the 95% threshold had been achieved.
Approximately 3,800 claimants will partake in the settlement, with an average payout of $58,000 to women who claimed that Merck failed to properly design and test the NuvaRing device, and the company also failed to adequately warn users of its potential dangers, which have been shown to include injury and death resulting from blood clots, strokes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer of the reproductive organs and breast, and heart attacks.
Robert B. Sickels
For more than 30 years, Robert Sickels has successfully represented plaintiffs involved in complex personal injury, medical negligence, and products liability matters.
