Victoria’s supreme court has ruled against more than a thousand Australian women who launched a class action against the marker of their birth control device, pharmaceutical giant Bayer. The women had argued its Essure contraceptive coil caused chronic pain and bleeding, but a judge decided they did not prove the device caused their symptoms.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00It's taken more than five years for this decision to be delivered and for many of the women
00:06involved in this class action, today's loss is devastating.
00:10Many of them were recommended to use the Assura contraceptive device by their doctors or gynaecologists.
00:15It is a permanent form of contraception which essentially prevents pregnancy by the insertion
00:22of a coil which creates scar tissue and blocks the fallopian tubes.
00:27More than a thousand Australian women claim it caused chronic pain and bleeding which
00:32for some became debilitating, stopping them from being able to go about their ordinary
00:36lives.
00:37At least half the women who took part in the lawsuit were impacted so badly they were forced
00:41to get hysterectomies, some of them in their early thirties.
00:45Bayer settled a similar class action in the USA for more than a billion dollars but after
00:49a 12 week trial it successfully defended the Australian case.
00:54A Supreme Court justice today delivered his verdict and reasons finding the claimant's
00:58evidence was far from compelling and that Bayer had provided adequate warnings about
01:02Assura's risks which the company argued were rare.
01:06Justice Keogh said the case had to be considered in the context that there were many reasons
01:10women of reproductive age experienced pain and bleeding but the causes are complex and
01:15there are often many factors that contribute to it.
01:19Essentially the court ruled the class action failed to prove the women's symptoms were
01:22caused by the Assura device which was discontinued in 2017.
01:26On behalf of the thousand women in the class action that this was a very disappointing
01:31and terrible judgement and yet again women's bodies have just treated and we've been not
01:38heard and we're all very gutted about this, we're just speechless.
01:44My daughter's right here, never implant anything in your body, it's quite simple, learn from
01:50me and what I've lost and what we've lost as a family, don't do it, research, I mean
01:56I did something for myself and it backfired, you know, that's how it is for me so for all
02:03women out there just, you know, research, research.
02:08I'm so proud of her, she's been able to keep it together for me and my other three siblings
02:13and yeah despite everything she goes on she tries her best not to let it get in our way.
02:19FIRE released a statement this afternoon saying it welcomed the decision.
02:23The company has always stood behind its product saying that it was backed by extensive research
02:29and clinical trials.
02:31Slater and Gordon lawyers which represented the women involved in the class action also
02:36released a statement.
02:37They praised the courage of the lead plaintiff and said they will review the decision but
02:42at this stage it is not clear if there will be an appeal.