San Francisco Chronicle, "Ortho Evra weekly birth control patch target of lawsuit"

          The maker and distributor of a widely used once-a-week birth control patch were the targets of lawsuits filed Wednesday in San Francisco by the mother of a 25-year-old woman who died after using the patch and by 44 other women who blame the device for blood clots and other illnesses.
          The Superior Court suits are among about 800 filed nationwide against Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Co., manufacturer of the Ortho Evra patch, said plaintiffs' lawyer Shawn Khorrami. He said the San Francisco connection to the case is that another defendant, McKesson Corp., which distributes the device, is based in the city.
          Ortho-McNeil spokeswoman Julie Keenan declined to comment on the suit or the product, saying the company does not discuss pending litigation. The company's Web site says a recent study by the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, a prominent pharmacological research organization, examined the risk of women suffering certain types of blood clots and found no difference between Ortho Evra and oral contraceptives. Ortho-McNeil, based in New Jersey, is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.