In yet another loss for Pfizer’s Wyeth unit involving side effects of Prempro, a Philadelphia jury awarded $9.45 million this week to an Alabama woman who said that the hormone replacement therapy caused her to develop breast cancer.
The verdict, which is the fifth Prempro lawsuit loss in a row for Wyeth, included $3.45 million in compensatory damages and $6 million in punitive damages awarded to punish the company for their conduct. In the case, Audrey Singleton alleged that Wyeth knew about the risk of breast cancer from Prempro and failed to warn the public about the risk of the drug. According to a report by Bloomberg News, the jury took only minutes to determine that Pfizer, which bought Wyeth last year, should be penalized for the drug maker’s conduct.
Late last year, Pfizer was ordered to pay punitive damages over Prempro by two other Philadelphia juries who found that Wyeth purposefully hid Prempro’s breast cancer risk. Overall, Wyeth has lost seven of the last 10 lawsuits over the hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Hormone replacement therapy involves the use of hormones and progestins to artificially boost hormone levels in women undergoing menopause due to surgery or in postmenopausal women, to provide relief from symptoms such as hot flashes, irregular menstruation or weight gain.
In 2002 the National Institutes of Health released the results of studies that found women receiving HRT were at higher risk of breast cancer, strokes and heart attacks. The studies, part of the Women’s Health Initiative, sparked most of the hormone replacement therapy breast cancer lawsuits currently pending throughout the country.
There are an estimated 9,000 Prempro lawsuits pending against Wyeth and Pfizer. All of the lawsuits include similar allegations that the drug company’s failure to warn consumers and the medical community about the risk of Prempro side effects caused them to develop invasive breast cancer.