no time for babies

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Sep 23, 2010

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson may have known years ago about the deadly risks of its birth control patch Ortho Evra, according to internal documents obtained by NBC News.

Thus the Today Show report. Among the items listed in the complaint against Johnson & Johnson:

Ortho Evra was 12 times more likely to cause strokes and 18 times more likely to cause blood clots than the conventional birth control pill…

Wait. So then there is some measurable likelihood that the conventional birth-control pill will cause strokes and blood clots? Since the Pill is among the most commonly dispensed medications in the US today, it’s odd that we haven’t heard about those risks-- on NBC or elsewhere in the mass media.

The most moving part of the NBC report is the story of a vigorous young woman, a college undergraduate, who died suddenly while using the Ortho Evra patch:

"She just got up and collapsed in the doorway. And she was gone instantly," Leslie Niedner, Duffy's mother, told NBC. "This is a Johnson & Johnson product — it's the most trusted brand for baby products, so why would I question their birth control patch?”

Maybe Leslie Neidner had fond memories of using Johnson & Johnson products to care for little Duffy when she was an infant. But now Duffy had grown up, and the Ortho Evra patch was definitely not a baby product. It was designed to prevent babies.