400 women against Pfizer: pharmaceutical giant is accused of keeping silent about brain tumors from Depo-Provera contraceptive
5 June 10:31
The American pharmaceutical company Pfizer is at the center of another major scandal over its contraceptive drug Depo-Provera. About 400 women have filed a lawsuit against the company alleging that Pfizer injections cause brain tumors. This was reported by businesswire, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
A study published in the British Medical Journal in March 2024 revealed shocking facts. Women who have used Depo-Provera injections for more than a year have a 5.6 times higher risk of developing meningioma, a brain tumor.
“Since the study published in the British Medical Journal in March 2024, other studies have confirmed this risk. Cancer epidemiologist Paul Faroa estimates that 40 out of every ten thousand 30-year-old women in the UK will be diagnosed with meningioma by the age of 80. But this risk rises to about 200 per 10,000 among women who have used Depo-Provera, which equates to a 2% rate of brain tumors among Depo-Provera users,
– writes businesswire.
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Not everyone was warned
Symptoms associated with these brain tumors include headaches, memory loss, seizures, and difficulty speaking, and often require surgery.
Pfizer reportedly knew about the dangers of brain tumors, but concealed it from American women. The company added warning labels about the risk of brain tumors to its packaging in Canada in 2015, in the UK and Europe in October 2024, and in South Africa in February 2025. But US women have not yet received any warning that the drug can cause brain tumors.
The Ukrainian instruction for the drug lists a number of negative side effects it causes, including nervous system disorders with the symptoms listed above. At the same time, it does not mention meningiomas, but instead claims that the drug “has antitumor activity.”
According to businesswire, 74 million women worldwide use Depo-Provera.
The drug was created in the 1950s to treat cancer, but animal tests showed that it causes cancer itself. The first clinical trials were conducted on poor and African-American women, allegedly without their consent. The FDA denied permission to use the drug in the United States three times between 1978 and 1992 due to safety concerns, including the risk of tumors.
The court case
The case is being heard in a court in Pensacola, Florida. Attorneys from Levin Papantonio, who have previously won more than $80 billion in cases against such giants as Johnson & Johnson and Merck, will represent women who developed brain tumors after using Pfizer.
“We will demand that Pfizer be held accountable for concealing information that their drug causes brain tumors,”
– said attorneys Virginia Buchanan and Chris Paulos.
This case may become one of the largest lawsuits against the pharmaceutical industry in history, as it concerns the health of millions of women who trusted Pfizer and received a brain tumor risk instead of contraception.
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