Quoted from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-28/pfizer-s-prempro-didn-t-cause-woman-s-cancer-jury-concludes.html
Pfizer’s Prempro Didn’t Cause Woman’s Cancer, Jury Concludes
By Sophia Pearson and Jef Feeley - Jul 28, 2011 6:32 PM ET
Pfizer Inc. (PFE)’s Prempro menopause drug wasn’t the cause of a West Virginia woman’s breast cancer, a jury ruled today in rejecting her claim for damages.
Jurors in federal court in Charleston, West Virginia, found that hormone therapy medicines made by Pfizer’s Wyeth and Upjohn units weren’t a cause in the development of Leah Royce Hines’s breast cancer.
“While we have great sympathy for Mrs. Hines and her family, this verdict affirms the fact that science cannot determine what caused or contributed to any individual woman’s breast cancer, except in rare circumstances where genetics plays a role,” Chris Loder, a Pfizer spokesman, 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.
Until 1995, many menopausal women combined Premarin, Wyeth’s estrogen-based drug, with progestin-laden Provera, made by Pfizer’s Upjohn unit, to relieve their symptoms. Wyeth combined the two hormones in its Prempro pill.
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