Lawsuits alleging harm to people taking prescribed medicines are nothing new. But a recent one related to a birth control drug is moving quickly across the country, including in Nevada.
Pfizer, the company credited with quickly creating one of the COVID-19 vaccines, is one of the companies being sued for allegedly not informing doctors and patients about the potential negative impacts of the Depo-Provera shot, which uses high doses of progesterone to prevent pregnancy.
It’s a popular drug that has been used by millions of women worldwide since its introduction in 1992.
But earlier this year, French researchers found the drug to be associated with a more than 500% increase in the risk of brain tumors and other neurological issues.
That’s what allegedly happened to Tina Stephens-Smith of Las Vegas. She received regular injections of the drug from her gynecologist for over 20 years, equating to 80 total doses. That was until she began developing non-cancerous brain tumors and neurological problems, like seizures, vision problems, and headaches.
Last month, Stephens-Smith filed a lawsuit claiming Pfizer knew, and worked with other Depo shot manufacturers, to conceal the risk of brain tumors from the doctors and patients like her.
Her attorney is Robert Eglet of the Law Office of Eglet Adams Eglet Ham Henriod. He said that the primary issue is a lack of proper brain tumor warning labels on Depo-Provera packaging in the U.S., unlike in Canada and Europe.
“There have been 14 different iterations of the label, at least for Pfizer, over less than a decade,” he said, “and not one time did they ever change the label to reflect a warning for this particular problem, even though the last label change was done in July of this year, four months after the French study came out, which [shows] they clearly knew about it.”
A representative from Pfizer declined an invitation to speak to Nevada Public Radio, but a company spokesperson did say that “Depo-Provera has been an FDA-approved medication for more than 30 years and has been a safe and effective treatment option for millions of patients during that time. The company will vigorously defend these lawsuits.”
Eglet is skeptical of this.
“I think that the 10,000s of women who have developed a brain tumor from taking this drug would disagree with the safeness of it,” he said. “And the fact that it's FDA approved doesn't mean anything. It’s Pfizer as a pharmaceutical company’s legal responsibility to test these drugs for these types of risks.”
In the meantime, before the case goes to court, Eglet said he and the Dimopoulos Law Firm — which is also furnishing attorneys for Stephens-Smith — are receiving hundreds of calls from other people alleging similar harm after taking Depo-Provera.
“About when we filed Tina's case,” he said, “I predicted that we would have 1,000 of these cases between our two firms by May. I think it's going to be closer to 1,500 now.”
Guest: Robert Eglet, plaintiff’s attorney, The Law Office of Eglet Adams Eglet Ham Henriod
