Merck and Co. announced Friday that it will pay $100 million to settle thousands of lawsuits alleging it downplayed serious health risks involving its NuvaRing intrauterine contraceptive device, Reuters reported.

The U.S. drugmaker's product, which contains estrogen and progestin hormones commonly found in birth control pills, has been linked to an increased risk of developing blood clots that can cause heart attacks, strokes or sudden deaths, Reuters reported.

The product has been available to women in the United States since 2001; NuvaRing is one of several contraceptive products linked to this higher risk.

Many patients sued Merck in New Jersey over the safety of the NuvaRing contraceptive, accusing the drugmaker of selling the product while knowing it posed a higher risk of heart attack-inducing blood clots than competing products.

"The settlement is a fair resolution of this litigation," Judge Brian Martinotti in Hackensack said at a hearing Friday according to Bloomberg News. "This is a lump-sum settlement of $100 million that covers the entire litigation nationwide."

Lainie Keller, a spokeswoman for New Jersey-based Merck, said the company isn't admitting wrongdoing under the settlement and will continue to promote NuvaRing as a safe contraceptive. She said Merck continues to "monitor the safety of the medicine."

In the agreement, Merck would pay a fraction of German drugmaker Bayer AG has paid in a similar settlement.

Last year, Bayer AG had paid nearly $1.6 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits involving accusations that its Yaz and Yazmin birth control pills caused blood clots that led to strokes and heart attacks.