Joel Lippman, a former vice president at Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries Ortho-McNeil and Ethicon, last month filed a civil lawsuit against J&J in Middlesex County, N.J., Superior Court claiming he was fired unlawfully for insisting on recalls of the Ortho Evra birth control patch and other products because of health and safety concerns, the AP/Long Island Newsday reports (Johnson, AP/Long Island Newsday, 12/15). The Associated Press in July 2005 reported that, according to FDA records it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, women using Ortho Evra in 2004 were three times as likely as women using birth control pills to die or develop nonfatal blood clots. FDA in November 2005 updated its warning label for the drug to say that women who use Ortho Evra have a higher risk of experiencing blood clots and other side effects than previously stated. The agency in September announced it had updated the warning label to include information from two conflicting studies on increased risk of blood clots among patch users (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 12/14).

Lawsuit Details, Reaction
Lippman, who was vice president of clinical trials at Ortho-McNeil and worldwide vice president of medical affairs at Ethicon before he was fired on May 15, alleges he began having problems at J&J after he called attention to product safety problems and serious health risks linked to Ortho Evra, "which released dangerously high levels of estrogen into patients," according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks lost past and future salary and lost bonuses, pension contributions and other benefits (AP/Long Island Newsday, 12/15). According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the suit claims Lippman's firing violated New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act, which bars companies from penalizing workers who act as whistleblowers (May, Newark Star-Ledger, 12/15). J&J in a statement released on Friday said Lippman was fired "as a result of inappropriate conduct and mismanagement of responsibilities unrelated to the allegations he raises in the lawsuit." Lippman declined to be interviewed, the AP/Newsday reports. Lippman's attorney Bruce McMoran said, "We would hope that the bringing of this type of suit would encourage companies not to retaliate against employees who blow the whistle" (AP/Long Island Newsday, 12/15).

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