Famed consumer advocate Erin Brockovich has launched a grassroots campaign against Bayer's Essure permanent birth control device.
Essure is a non-surgical transcervical sterilization procedure that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002, and is meant as a cheaper, easier and safer alternative to tubal ligation.
Brockovich is calling for Essure to be taken off of the market by Bayer and is seeking a complete investigation into injury claims. More than 700,000 women have undergone the procedure, according to Conceptus, which originally designed and manufactured Essure. Over 800 women have filed adverse event reports with the FDA about Essure birth control since 2004, according to the FDA website.
Critics, including Joseph Gregory, GlobalData’s Analyst covering Medical Devices, claim that while adverse events are serious, they need to be considered in reference to how many total patients have undergone and benefited from the procedure. Although the adverse event profile may seem immensely large when highlighted, it isn’t large enough to surpass 1%.
