Judge rules against pill claimants
Mr Justice Mackay in the High Court in London dismissed a group litigation brought by 99 women against Schering Health Care Ltd, Organon Laboratories Ltd and John Wyeth and Brother Ltd, manufacturers of the third generation pill.
His complex ruling, following 44 days of legal argument and evidence given by 10 epidemiological experts, concluded with the finding that there was no enhanced relative risk between the second and third generations of pill.
He said a technique called the Cox Regression Analysis, which looked at the full lifetime use by women of various different kinds of contraceptive pills, yielded the ‘‘most compelling evidence’’ in the case. Mr Justice Mackay said even if he was wrong about the validity of Cox, he was not satisfied the effect of the other investigations into the third generation pill was to show, on a balance of probability, that the risk of VTE it carried was more than twice that of the second generation products it sought to replace.
The judge said he was aware that the result would come as a serious disappointment to the claimants who, he said, had suffered very significant health problems, including some fatal cases.
‘‘It may or may not be any comfort to them to know that this trial was almost certainly the most exhaustive examination that this question has yet received and that their case could not have been more effectively put forward than it was by the highly skilled and dedicated legal team who acted for them.’’
The women’s case, the first of its kind under the Consumer Protection Act, was that the products they received were defective.
Solicitor Martyn Day said: ‘‘To be frank, we have been astonished that the judge has come to the decision that there is no increased risk.
‘‘Of course, we fully respect his authority and the fact that he is the one who has the duty to review the evidence and come to a judgment. However, that does not diminish the surprise we felt on reading his decision.
‘‘He has come to the view that there is no increased risk, based on one complex study unsupported in the literature, or by any independent scientific body and a study that the regulatory authorities have clearly rejected.
“The judgment is obviously very disappointing for the claimants and for their legal team.
“We will review with them in the next few days as to whether or not an appeal has any real chance of success, but that review has to take place in the context that the Court of Appeal has shown itself to be very unenthusiastic about appeals in these sorts of actions following a lengthy trial.’’
Trudi Banning, who suffered a thrombosis which turned gangrenous, said: ‘‘There is no justice in this country. I am speaking on behalf of all the women who have been damaged or killed by taking this pill that this could not possibly have been the right decision. “My advice to anyone now is stop taking the pill.’’
The manufactures of the pill welcomed yesterday’s decision.
