Plaintiff Alleged Wyeth Used False And Misleading Advertising For Prempro And Premarin, Thereby Hiding Risks
(Posted by Tom Lamb at DrugInjuryWatch.com)
On February 15, 2007 a federal court jury in Arkansas found the drug company Wyeth not liable for the breast cancer which 72-year old Helene Rush alleged was caused by her use of Prempro and Premarin. Rush was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999; her attorneys said she took Wyeth's hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for about ten years.
Lawyers for Wyeth, however, said Rush likely would have developed breast cancer due to genetic and health factors, such as weight gain and a history of smoking, regardless of whether she ever took Premarin or Prempro.
As regards liability, the basis of this plaintiff's case was the allegation that Wyeth had failed to adequately warn Rush about the risk of serious side effects linked to estrogen-progestin hormone therapy, namely, the Prempro and Premarin used by this woman. During the trial, Rush's attorneys argued to the jury that neither Rush nor her doctors could have known about the breast cancer risk associated with the use of Prempro and Premarin because Wyeth had fraudulently concealed that risk. In part, this was done by means of false and misleading advertising by the drug company over many years.
The jury -- after considering for a day-and-a-half the evidence presented during the Rush trial -- made the following determinations about Wyeth's conduct in the context of this particular case:
- Wyeth provided adequate warnings about the risks associated with its hormone replacement therapy drugs;
- Prempro and Premarin were not defective medicines;
- Neither Prempro nor Premarin were a primary cause of this woman's breast cancer; and,
- Wyeth was not negligent in its promotion of the its hormone replacement drugs Prempro and Premarin.
A February 15, 2007 Reuters article about this verdict for Wyeth put the Rush case result in context by reporting on the current status of hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, litigation:
Wyeth declined to comment on the outcome of the [Arkansas federal district court / MDL Rush] trial as a Philadelphia jury was in the process of deliberating another Prempro product liability case [in Pennsylvania state court].
That [Pennsylvania state court] suit is a retrial of a trial that Wyeth lost in October only to have the judge declare a mistrial and overturn the verdict against the drugmaker.
The reason for that [Pennsylvania state court mistrial] ruling was not disclosed at the time but there has been widespread speculation the decision may have been a result of juror misconduct. Wyeth had won an earlier [federal district court / MDL] Prempro trial in Arkansas, but last month a Philadelphia [Pennsylvania state court] jury found that Prempro was responsible for a woman's breast cancer and ordered the drugmaker to pay $1.5 million in damages.
It is estimated that Wyeth is facing about 5,000 lawsuits regarding allegations of cancer caused by Prempro and/or Premarin.