Written By Alex Crees
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer ordered the recall Tuesday of at least a million oral contractive packets because the pills might not be potent enough to prevent pregnancy.
Pfizer said the recall affected 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets.
The action could leave the pharmaceutical giant vulnerable to a multi-million dollar lawsuit, according to one attorney.
In a statement, Pfizer said consumers exposed to affected packaging should begin using a non-hormonal form of contraception immediately, and patients who have the affected product (lot numbers are provided on the company website) should notify their physician and return the product to the pharmacy.
Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor of FoxNews.com, said this recall of birth control pills is one of the largest he can remember in recent years. “If there’s one thing that for years women have relied on, it’s that the sun is going to come out in the morning, you have to pay taxes, and that your birth control pills will work,” he said.
“The efficacy of birth control pills is supposed to be 99.8 percent in preventing pregnancy, especially when women take it as directed. It seems to me that as people rely more on pharmaceutical companies to keep good quality control, we just keep going backwards.”
According to Pfizer’s statement, there are no other health risks associated with the contraceptives – but Greg Gianforcaro, a litigation attorney in New Jersey, told FoxNews.com the risk of unwanted pregnancies alone could be enough to open the company up to serious legal ramifications.
“I think you potentially may see some very significant verdicts [if a woman gets pregnant], because in essence a person takes birth control pills so they don’t have to address issues that – as a result of the pill not working – they’re now going to have to address,” Gianfocaro said.
“In essence,” he explained, “we’re looking at, how do you put a price tag on a child’s education, a child’s upbringing, and other costs – initially, for diapers, then for sneakers, and then 20 years later, college and marriage?”
