60 Minutes to Report on Dangers of Trasylol: Cory Watson Crowder & DeGaris Involved in Litigation Against Pharmaceutical Giant Bayer AG

Business Wire, Feb 16, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Cory Watson Crowder & DeGaris, P.C. (www.cwcd.com), has filed lawsuits against Bayer AG (NYSE:BAY) on behalf of plaintiffs throughout the United States, who allegedly suffered permanent kidney damage after being given Trasylol[R]--a Bayer-manufactured drug used to prevent excessive bleeding during coronary artery bypass graft surgery (also called CABG or more commonly bypass). According to CBS News, 60 Minutes will report Sunday night that 22,000 additional lives could have been saved had the FDA taken action to remove Trasylol from the market in 2006. Dr. Dennis Mangano, a leading researcher in the field, whose January 2006 New England Journal of Medicine article set out the dangers of Trasylol (also known as aprotinin), reports that Bayer AG had done internal studies that were not presented to the FDA at a September 2006 advisory panel meeting that would have confirmed the dangers of this drug. FDA eventually requested marketing suspension of Trasylol, which finally occurred in November of 2007. The market suspension is now worldwide.

"This drug, which most patients never knew they received during their surgery, has caused significant injuries and loss of life due to severe and possibly life-threatening kidney problems," said Brian D. Turner, Jr., shareholder at Cory Watson Crowder & DeGaris, the law firm that filed the first two cases in the nation against Bayer regarding Trasylol. Turner said, "That this drug company had information that could have saved lives and did not make that information known is reprehensible and Bayer needs to be held accountable."

According to German scientist, Dr. Juergen Fischer, who was interviewed for the 60 Minutes segment, Bayer AG has known since the 1980s that Trasylol caused severe kidney damage, but undertook no study during the drug's development to look at these side effects.

Earlier this month, an article in The Lancet brought the debate over Trasylol back into the spotlight when a retrospective study showed risks related to Trasylol to be more prevalent with certain surgical procedures. Dr. Mangano's observational study of over 5,000 patients in 17 countries, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in January 2006, showed that Trasylol doubled the risk of kidney failure in patients. A Canadian study on the effects of Trasylol, known as BART (Blood conservation using Antifibrinolytics in a Randomized Trial), was halted in October 2006 when the drug appeared to have an increased risk of death compared to other drugs in the study.

About Cory Watson Crowder & DeGaris P.C.

Cory Watson Crowder & DeGaris was founded in 1995 and has become known as one of the region's leading law firms devoted to representing individuals and businesses injured by the wrongful conduct of others. Some of the senior shareholders in the firm have 25 years of legal experience and have represented clients all across the United States and beyond including Africa, Greece, Latin America, and Canada. The firm's experienced attorneys and staff handle a variety of cases. The largest area of the firm's practice is products liability, including litigation of defective consumer and household products, motor vehicles, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. Other practice areas include business litigation, personal injury, nursing home negligence, insurance law, civil rights, class action lawsuits, employment law, workers' compensation, and construction accidents. Visit www.cwcd.com for more information.