Since Erika Langhart died at age 24 after two heart attacks in 2011, her parents Karen and Rick Langhart have fought to have the product that they say killed her - NuvaRing - taken off the market.
© Karen Langhart
Erika Langhart, 24, died on Thanksgiving Day 2011, after suffering two heart attacks. She was on NuvaRing, a third-generation birth control, which favors blood clots.
Now they are denouncing the $100 million settlement that Merck & Co., the pharmaceutical giant that produces NuvaRing, is offering to resolve about 3,800 lawsuits in federal and state courts, claiming the company concealed NuvaRing's potentially lethal side effects.
Numerous studies show NuvaRing, a form of birth control that uses "desogestrel," a third-generation progestin, increases the risk of blood clots that lead to strokes and heart attacks.
Merck, the second biggest U.S. drugmaker, did not respond to requests for comment.
Under the settlement agreement, Merck denies any fault. The settlement must be accepted by 95 percent of about 3,800 eligible plaintiffs before March 10.
According to
Vanity Fair, one lawyer for the plaintiffs, Roger Denton of the law firm Schlichter, Bogard and Denton, said the settlement, reached after nearly a year of negotiations, is "an outstanding result and in the best interests of all the women who have suffered an injury associated with the use of NuvaRing."
To the Langharts, this amounts to lawyers awaiting payday.
"Shame on them," Rick Langhart said.
"This settlement agreement, orchestrated by Merck and the attorneys on both sides, driven by their own greed, has all but eliminated the chance for Merck to be taken to trial."
Comment: The 'outrage' is understandable given that people today have been led to believe that smoking is the root of all evil, but according to one A.J. Bell, writing in about 1700: And from another source: