Pharmaceutical Drug Litigation Updates

N.J. manufacturers cannot be sued for claim that their drugs caused breast cancer, panel says

Quoted from http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/09/nj_manufacturers_cannot_be_sue.html

N.J. manufacturers cannot be sued for claim that their drugs caused breast cancer, panel says

Published: Thursday, September 29, 2011, 8:39 PM Updated: Thursday, September 29, 2011, 8:39 PM

By MaryAnn Spoto/The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — Putting more than 150 lawsuits over hormone replacement therapy into question, a state appellate panel today said two New Jersey manufacturers cannot be sued by two women who claim the synthetic drugs they took for years caused their breast cancer.

The decision — 3½ years in the making — was a victory for Pfizer Inc., whose subsidiaries, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Upjohn Co., have been accused of failing to provide adequate warning of the risk of breast cancer from their drugs used to treat the symptoms of menopause.

The dismissals do not set precedent for courts outside of New Jersey — there are lawsuits based on the same evidence proceeding in other states — but the decision calls into question the future of more than 150 lawsuits put on hold in New Jersey while this appeal was pending.

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Pfizer Said to Pay $330 Million in Prempro Settlement

Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-09/pfizer-said-to-pay-330-million-in-prempro-settlement.html

Pfizer Said to Pay $330 Million in Prempro Settlement

February 09, 2011, 4:45 PM EST

By Jef Feeley

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay about $330 million to resolve claims that its Prempro menopause drug caused breast cancer, in the first large-scale settlements in eight years of litigation, two people familiar with the accords said.

Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, will settle more than 2,200 lawsuits alleging the company’s Wyeth unit hid Prempro’s cancer risks, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the accords. The cases settled for an average of about $150,000, the people said.

“The reported settlement terms are not accurate and beyond that, we do not comment on our litigation strategy,” Chris Loder, a spokesman for New York-based Pfizer, said in a telephone interview today.

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Pfizer Told to Pay $10 Million Over Prempro Verdict

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-08/pfizer-liable-for-1-68-million-in-prempro-damages-appeals-court-rules.html

Pfizer Told to Pay $10 Million Over Prempro Verdict

By Jef Feeley and Phil Milford - Feb 8, 2011 6:44 PM ET

Pfizer Inc. must pay more than $10 million in damages to an Arkansas woman who blamed her cancer on the company’s Prempro menopause drug, after an appeals court reinstated a jury verdict.

A Pennsylvania appeals court yesterday overturned a judge’s ruling that Pfizer’s Wyeth unit deserved a new trial in connection with Mary Daniel’s claim that Prempro caused her breast cancer. A Philadelphia jury in 2007 awarded Daniel and her family $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $8.6 million in punitives on her claim, according to Esther Berezofsky, one of the family’s lawyers.

The appellate judges concluded no “fraud on the court took place here and a new trial should not have been granted,” according to the 55-page decision from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Officials of New York-based Pfizer said they were disappointed with the decision and considering their legal options.

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Pfizer Must Pay $1.6 Million Drug Damages, Judges Say

Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-08/pfizer-must-pay-1-6-million-drug-damages-judges-say.html

Pfizer Must Pay $1.6 Million Drug Damages, Judges Say

February 08, 2011, 2:28 PM EST

By Jef Feeley and Phil Milford

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drugmaker, must pay $1.68 million plus undisclosed punitive damages to a woman who blamed her breast cancer on the Prempro menopause drug, after an appeals court reinstated a verdict.

In 2007, a trial jury in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas awarded Mary Daniel and her family $1,681,650 from Pfizer’s Wyeth unit, plus punitive damages that the court kept secret. A judge later overturned the verdict. Daniel filed an appeal with the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

The three-judge panel ruled yesterday that “contrary to Wyeth’s contentions,” no “fraud on the court took place here and a new trial should not have been granted” by the lower court.

“The company disputes the fairness of the previous trial and the appropriateness of the jury’s verdict. We are considering all our legal options,” Christopher Loder, a spokesman for New York-based Pfizer, said today in an e-mailed statement.

Annual sales of Wyeth’s hormone-replacement drugs once topped $2 billion before the Women’s Health Initiative study, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, suggested that women on the therapy had a 24 percent higher risk of breast cancer.

Pfizer rose 4 cents to $19.08 at 2:07 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

The case is Daniel v. Wyeth, 040602368, Court of Common Pleas (Philadelphia).

Pfizer Ordered to Pay $1.5 Million in Prempro Damages

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-31/pfizer-must-pay-1-5-million-in-prempro-damages-jury-in-puerto-rica-says.html

Pfizer Ordered to Pay $1.5 Million in Prempro Damages

By Jef Feeley and Phil Milford - Dec 31, 2010 3:36 PM ET

Pfizer Inc. must pay $1.5 million in damages to a pharmacist who developed breast cancer after taking one of the company’s menopause drugs, a jury in Puerto Rico ruled.

Jurors in federal court in San Juan deliberated about 7 hours over two days before finding yesterday that Pfizer’s Wyeth subsidiary failed to properly warn Helen Rivera-Adams and her doctors about the health risks of its Prempro menopause medicine, one of her lawyers said in an interview.

Rivera-Adams, suffering from the late stages of cancer, pushed ahead with the trial “to get the message out that this drug is dangerous,” Michael Robb, one of her lawyers, said in a telephone interview today. “I don’t know how many times Wyeth executives will have to hear that this drug ruins women’s lives before they acknowledge it,” he said.

“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict and believe there is no basis in fact or law for this decision,” Christopher Loder, a spokesman for New York-based Pfizer, said in an e- mailed statement today. The company is weighing its legal options.”

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Drug companies settle with 2 Reno women in breast cancer suit

Quoted from http://www.rgj.com/article/20101220/NEWS/101220019/1321/Drug-companies-settle-with-2-Reno-women-in-breast-cancer-suit

Drug companies settle with 2 Reno women in breast cancer suit

BY MARTHA BELLISLE

December 20, 2010

Two major drug companies have reached a settlement with two women who had filed a lawsuit claiming the hormone replacement drugs the companies made, marketed and sold caused their breast cancer, a judge’s assistant said Monday.

Lawyers for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Upjohn Company, as well as for Nadine Bender and Sheila Scott, called Washoe District Judge Robert Perry’s chambers and notified the court that they had reached an agreement on the case.

The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed.

Lawyers for both sides have declined to discuss the agreement.

“As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on our legal strategy,” said Chris Loder, a spokesman for Pfizer, owner of Wyeth. “We stand by our hormone therapy medications, which remain an important treatment option for many women with debilitating symptoms of menopause, and we will continue to vigorously defend these medicines.”

The case was scheduled to go to trial Jan. 10, about two months after the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed a $58 million jury award to three Northern Nevada women who had made identical claims.

The cases are among thousands filed by women across the country who have made similar claims.

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Pfizer Properly Warned About Prempro Risks, Jury Finds

Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-03/pfizer-properly-warned-about-prempro-risks-jury-finds.html

Pfizer Properly Warned About Prempro Risks, Jury Finds

December 03, 2010, 12:05 PM EST

By Jef Feeley

(Updates with company comment in third paragraph.)

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.’s Wyeth unit properly warned a Virginia woman’s doctors about the risks of its Prempro menopause drug, a jury ruled today in rejecting her claim for damages.

Jurors in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, deliberated about four hours over two days before finding that Georgia Torkie-Tork couldn’t show that Wyeth officials downplayed the breast-cancer risks associated with Prempro, a hormone-replacement drug. The decision was Wyeth’s fourth straight victory in a Prempro suit weighed by a jury.

“We believe the verdict in this case affirms that Wyeth communicated the risks and benefits of Prempro,” Chris Loder, a spokesman for New York-based Pfizer, said in an e-mailed statement.

More than 6 million women took Prempro and related menopause drugs to treat symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings before a 2002 study highlighted their links to cancer. Wyeth’s sales of the medicines, which are still on the market, topped $2 billion before the release of the Women’s Health Initiative, a National Institutes of Health-sponsored study.

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Pfizer Unit Downplayed Prempro’s Risks, Lawyer Says

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-16/pfizer-unit-downplayed-prempro-s-risks-lawyer-says-update1-.htm

Pfizer Unit Downplayed Prempro’s Risks, Lawyer Says

By Jef Feeley - Nov 16, 2010 6:55 PM ET

Pfizer Inc.’s Wyeth unit downplayed the risks that its Prempro menopause drug could cause breast cancer, a lawyer for a Virginia woman who developed the disease told jurors.

Executives at Wyeth intentionally ignored researchers’ findings that the company’s hormone-replacement drugs might put women like Georgia Torkie-Tork at risk for the disease, Zoe Littlepage, one of her lawyers, told a federal court jury today in Alexandria, Virginia. The company also included ambiguous references to Prempro’s breast-cancer risks on the drug’s warning label, Littlepage said.

Wyeth’s scientists “never did a breast cancer study” on Prempro even though outside studies repeatedly uncovered “safety signals about the drug,” Littlepage said in opening statements.

More than 6 million women took the menopause drugs to treat symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings before a 2002 study highlighted their links to cancer. Wyeth’s sales of the medicines, which are still on the market, topped $2 billion before the Women’s Health Initiative, a National Institutes of Health-sponsored study, concluded that they posed an increased risk of cancer.

Until 1995, many menopausal women combined Premarin, Wyeth’s estrogen-based drug, with Upjohn’s progestin-laden Provera, to relieve their symptoms. Wyeth later combined the two hormones in its Prempro pill.

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Prempro Hormone Therapy Amplifies Breast Cancer Risks, Study Finds

Quoted from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/health/20hormone.html

Breast Cancer Seen as Riskier With Hormone

By DENISE GRADY

Published: October 19, 2010

Hormone treatment after menopause, already known to increase the risk of breast cancer, also makes it more likely that the cancer will be advanced and deadly, a study finds.

Women who took hormones and developed breast cancer were more likely to have cancerous lymph nodes, a sign of more advanced disease, and were more likely to die from the disease than were breast cancer patients who had never taken hormones.

The increased risks were relatively small and are not fully understood. But previous research has found that hormone treatment can cause delays in diagnosis by increasing breast density, making tumors harder to see on mammograms. Delayed diagnosis may increase the risk of death.

It is also possible that hormones may feed the growth of some breast cancers or the blood vessels that tumors need to grow and spread.

The treatment studied was the most commonly prescribed hormone replacement pill, Prempro, which contains estrogens from horse urine and a synthetic relative of the hormone progesterone.

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Pfizer Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court on Lawsuit Related to Menopause Drug

Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-12/pfizer-rejected-by-u-s-supreme-court-on-menopause-drug-suit.html

Pfizer Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court on Lawsuit Related to Menopause Drug

By Greg Stohr - Oct 12, 2010 10:04 AM ET

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Pfizer Inc. and other makers of hormone replacement treatments, leaving intact a ruling that lets 123 women who developed breast cancer sue in Minnesota state court.

The appeal sought to reinstate a federal trial court ruling that dismissed 116 of the plaintiffs because their claims duplicated previously filed suits.

The issue in the Supreme Court appeal turned on the complex rules governing efforts by corporate defendants to move suits out of plaintiff-friendly state courts and into federal tribunals.

In the Pfizer case, a federal appeals court said the trial judge shouldn’t have dismissed the 116 plaintiffs and instead should have immediately sent the entire matter back to Minnesota state court, where the suits were filed.

More than 6 million women took menopause drugs made by Pfizer’s Wyeth unit to treat symptoms including hot flashes and mood swings before a 2002 study highlighted their links to cancer.

The other companies being sued include units of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., Novartis AG, Abbott Laboratories and Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The case is Wyeth v. Kirkland, 10-222.