Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6239

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Publication type: news

Loftus P.
PremPro Plaintiff, Husband Win $1.5 Million in Damages
Wall Street Journal Online 2006 Oct 5

Full text:

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia jury found Wednesday that Wyeth’s
PremPro
hormone-therapy drug was a significant cause of breast cancer in a
66-year-old woman, and awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages.
The verdict in Pennsylvania state court, reached on the sixth day of
jury
deliberations, was Wyeth’s first loss in litigation involving about
5,000
lawsuits claiming PremPro and a related drug caused breast cancer and
other
diseases. Many of the suits were prompted by government studies showing
a
link between the drugs and increased risk for the diseases.
But Wyeth, Madison, N.J., soon will have a chance to reverse the
damages in
Wednesday’s loss. A second phase of the trial is set to begin Oct. 12
in
which the plaintiff, Jennie Nelson of Dayton, Ohio, will have to prove
that
Wyeth failed to adequately warn of PremPro’s risks. If the jury finds
in
favor of Wyeth in the second phase, Mrs. Nelson cannot collect any
damages,
including those awarded Wednesday, her lawyer said.
If the jury finds against Wyeth in the second phase, however, it may
then
award additional, punitive damages.
The jury voted 7-1 that Mrs. Nelson’s ingestion of Wyeth’s drugs was a
“factual cause” of her breast cancer, with which she was diagnosed in
2001
after taking PremPro since 1996 to treat menopausal symptoms. She had
previously taken another Wyeth drug, Premarin, since 1995. The jury
also
voted 7-1 to award Mrs. Nelson $1 million, plus $500,000 to her
husband.
“We’re happy and relieved we’ve gotten this far,” Mrs. Nelson’s
attorney,
Ken Suggs, told reporters after the verdict. “But we’re only halfway
through
the trial and we have work to do.”
Another Nelson attorney, Tobias Millrood, said the jury “carefully
deliberated complex scientific issues and found this drug caused Mrs.
Nelson’s breast cancer.”
Mr. Suggs said Mrs. Nelson, who had both of her breasts removed and
underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy to treat her cancer,
wouldn’t
be available for comment until after the second phase of the trial is
over.
Wyeth had argued during the trial that Mrs. Nelson had other risk
factors
for breast cancer, such as a family history of cancer. Wyeth also
argued
that it’s impossible to prove that individual cases of breast cancer
were
caused by its drugs.
“We’re disappointed in the jury’s decision,” Wyeth spokesman
Christopher
Garland said. “We respectfully disagree there’s any scientific basis to
support the finding of a causal link between Wyeth’s hormone therapies
and
the plaintiff’s breast cancer. This is one case and one jury’s verdict.
It
can in no way be used to extrapolate future results” in the litigation,
he
added.
Mr. Garland said that during the second phase of the trial, Wyeth plans
to
show the company acted responsibly by performing studies of hormone
therapy’s risks and benefits. Wyeth also kept regulators, doctors and
patients informed of these risks and benefits, Mr. Garland said.
Wyeth won the first PremPro trial last month in federal court in Little
Rock, Ark.
One legal expert said the structure of the trial made it difficult to
read
too much into Wednesday’s verdict. If the jury finds against Wyeth in
the
second phase, it would be a “significant setback” for Wyeth, said
Howard
Erichson, law professor at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, N.J.
“If the jury finds no liability” in the second phase, Prof. Erichson
added,
“Wyeth still will not be pleased for the jury to have found that a
product
still on the market was the cause of the plaintiff’s breast cancer.”
Wednesday’s verdict was reached just a few hours after the Pennsylvania
judge in the case removed one juror and replaced him with an alternate.
No
reason was given for the action. The jury began deliberations Sept. 26
after
a two-week trial, and deliberated for more than 30 hours, including the
three hours of deliberations with the replacement juror.
The same jury of five men and three women will hear the second phase of
the
trial.
Wyeth’s drugs are still on the market, but publicity surrounding the
government studies has caused Wyeth sales of Premarin-related products
to
drop to $909 million last year from $2.1 billion in 2001, the last full
year
before the key government studies began emerging.
Wyeth shares closed up 26 cents at $51.18.