Lawyers for Johnson & Johnson say the company is anxious to settle the many Ortho Evra lawsuits it is currently facing. Johnson & Johnson is the parent company of Ortho-McNeil, maker of the Ortho Evra birth control patch. More than 500 Ortho Evra lawsuits have already been filed, many of which have already been settled with women who suffered Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects. Johnson & Johnson has told many of the plaintiffs, judges and Ortho Evra lawyers that it is looking to quickly settle these as well.

Experts say that Johnson & Johnson seeks to avoid any more negative publicity from the birth control patch side effects that have been linked with Ortho Evra. Because most of the women who have filed Ortho Evra lawsuits have what is called a “signature disease”—a rare illness linked with use of the drug—Ortho Evra attorneys will have an easy time proving most of their claims in court. Ortho Evra has been linked with cases of blood clots, stroke, heart attack and other birth control patch side effects—conditions which are extremely rare among the young women who typically use the Ortho Evra birth control patch.

In spite of the company’s willingness to compensate victims as quickly as possible for the birth control patch injuries they have suffered, Johnson & Johnson is unlikely to be able to dispose of its Ortho Evra lawsuit problem so quickly. According to Food and Drug Administration statistics, there have been 9,116 reports of adverse birth control patch side effects among Ortho Evra users, a number the FDA says may represent only 1–10% of total Ortho Evra birth control patch side effects. Thousands of women who have suffered birth control patch side effects may not even realize that Ortho Evra caused their condition. Because of this, legal experts say that the number of new Ortho Evra birth control patch lawsuits will not decrease anytime soon, no matter how eager Johnson & Johnson is to settle them.

This fact was underscored in January 2006 when seven Ortho Evra lawsuits were filed against Johnson & Johnson over the course of a single day. The plaintiffs included Melody Miller, who suffered severe blood clots that eventually caused the miscarriage of her child. Another woman, Tanya Lowe, experienced blood clots in her leg that eventually spread to her lungs. Other birth control patch side effects reported in the seven Ortho Evra lawsuits include excessive bleeding, heart pain and blood conditions that will require lifetime use of blood thinners.

These cases underscore a growing body of evidence that points to the severe health risks associated with the Ortho Evra patch. A 2004 New York Post article linked the Ortho Evra birth control patch with the deaths of more than a dozen women during a two-year period. A second article later that year found that the Ortho Evra patch caused 11 times as many blood clots as a birth control pill.