ORTHO EVRA DEATHS REPORTED

An 18-year-old fashion student in New York died in April 2004 while using the Ortho Evra birth control patch. Officials from the FDA and Ortho McNeil report that this death was the first attributed to Ortho Evra patch use. The Medical Examiner's Office concluded that her death was the result of a blood clot.

As a result, Ortho McNeil issued a warning to doctors and patients in November 2005 that the Ortho Evra patch exposes high amounts of estrogen and may increase risk of blood clots and other serious cardiovascular events.

An internal company memo at Ortho McNeil stated that the company failed to fund a comparison study of the Ortho Evra patch and the Ortho-Cyclen birth control pill. It was implied that the company feared the results would be unfavorable for the patch. Since that time, Ortho McNeil has said that they will fund a study similar to those conducted in the past for birth control pills. On the Ortho Evra Web site, the company claims to have studied the effects of the patch on more than 3,000 women before selling and marketing it.

Ortho Evra Deaths Timeline

Here are a few of the other tragic stories of Ortho Evra birth control patch deaths:

The March 2004 death of a New York City woman who used the patch.

The May 2004 death of a 14-year-old girl from a pelvic DVT after eight weeks of Ortho Evra use.

The June 2004 blood clot death of a 20-year-old New Jersey woman who used Ortho Evra.

The pulmonary embolism death of a 17-year-old St. Louis girl who used the patch.

The stroke death of a 25-year-old woman who used Ortho Evra.

The July 2005 DVT death of a 30-year-old woman who used Ortho Evra with no prior history of health problems.

More than four million women having used the Ortho Evra patch since it came on the birth control scene in 2001. Many fear there may be other deaths, blood clots and serious cardiovascular events associated with the patch that have not yet been reported.