A New Jersey judge ordered Merck and Co. to pay $100 million as settlement for the lawsuits filed complaining about the safety of their contraceptive product, NuvaRing. 

The decision for the settlement is not yet final, as this is subject to the approval of at most 95 percent of the plaintiffs. If more than five percent of the women reject the offer, the proposed settlement will be canceled.

Judge Brian Martinotti, who is handling the case, made the announcement Friday during the hearing in Hackensack. He ruled that the settlement fee would be enough to cover as many as 3,800 lawsuits related to the vaginal ring. To date, there have been 200 women in New Jersey who sued Merck and Co for their faulty product.

"The settlement is a fair resolution of this litigation," Martinotti said to Bloomberg. "This is a lump-sum settlement of $100 million that covers the entire litigation nationwide."

If the settlement will push through, Merck will pay a cost much lower than the amount that other drug companies paid to settle lawsuits about their products. Last year, Merck's rival company, Bayer AG, paid over $1.6 billion to settle the complaints filed for its birth control pills.

The complaints about NuvaRing focused on the findings that it increases the risk for blood clots, which may induce heart attacks. The settlement will pay the plaintiffs who have suffered any one of the three classes of injuries from the clots: pulmonary embolisms, deep-vein thrombosis, and death.

Merck spokesperson Lainie Keller clarified to Bloomberg that the company's acceptance to pay the settlement fines is not tantamount to admitting that the contraceptive product was mishandled during its production. She said that the company strives to "monitor the safety of the medicine".

Aside from the cases that Judge Martinotti is handling, there was more than pending 200 lawsuits in New Jersey for NuvaRing. Other lawsuits involving the product were also filed in Illinois and California.