Couple Sues Pfizer Over Depo-Provera Health Risks

HIGHLIGHTS:

• A married couple from Virginia sued Pfizer and two subsidiaries over claims that the wife developed a brain tumor from taking the pharmaceutical giant’s Depo-Provera birth control shots
• The wife took the shots from 1994-1995 and claimed developing dizziness, slurred speech, fatigue, and neck problems
• A similar set of Depo-Provera lawsuits is pending settlement in various states, with plaintiffs also claiming developing brain tumors after the shots

A medical doctor holding a syringe. Photo by RF._.studio on Pexels

A married couple from Virginia has filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and two of its subsidiaries over claims that the wife developed a brain tumor from taking Depo-Provera birth control shots.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania last week. According to plaintiffs Holli and Lester Burket, Pfizer and its subsidiaries Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC and Pharmacia LLC failed to warn recipients of Depo-Provera shots about the risks of brain tumors.

The wife claimed that she developed dizziness, slurred speech, fatigue, and neck problems after taking Depo-Provera shots between 1994 and 1995.

In January 2023, she was diagnosed with intracranial meningioma following a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test. The scan revealed a 2.5-centimeter brain tumor which she had to have removed immediately.

Despite the successful procedure, the couple said doctors warned them that the cancer cells may return.

“Plaintiff may require radiation treatments in the future to prevent recurrence of her meningioma [and that she] will need to undergo follow-up MRIs annually,” the lawsuit said.

The couple sought compensatory and punitive damages from the defendants.

For his part, the husband presented a claim of loss of consortium—which can be filed by the family members of the affected or injured individual. 

Depo-Provera shots

Depo-Provera shots were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992 to be used as a contraceptive, and later, with the approval of the Depo-SubQ Provera 104 in 2004, as a treatment for endometriosis. It contains a high dose of progestin, a synthetic progesterone-like hormone that suppresses ovulation.

After decades of advertisements promoting quarterly injections as a safe means of preventing pregnancy, the shot has been widely used by more than 70 million women in the US.

A series of lawsuits have already been filed against Pfizer over the risks of Depo-Provera.

A panel of federal judges was asked to consolidate all Depo-Provera lawsuits before one judge for coordinated discovery and trial proceedings since all claims alleged that they developed brain tumors from taking the birth control shots.

However, earlier studies have found that women receiving birth control shots may face a fivefold greater risk of developing brain tumors.

Last November, nearly a dozen plaintiffs joined forces to file a motion for transfer with the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML), calling for similar Depo-Provera cases to be centralized in the Northern District of California, as part of a Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation, or MDL.