http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aRs7gAVuVivw&refer=news

Wyeth Menopause Drug Caused Women's Cancer, Jury Says

By Jef Feeley


Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Wyeth's Prempro menopause drug helped cause three Nevada women's cancers, and they deserve a total of $134.5 million in damages, jurors found in the drugmaker's fourth loss at a trial over the medicine.

A state court jury in Reno, Nevada, deliberated 12 hours over two days before finding Prempro, a hormone-replacement drug, contributed to the development of breast cancer in Arlene Rowatt, Jeraldine Scofield and Pamela Forrester. Wyeth is the largest maker of drugs designed to relieve menopause symptoms.

``This verdict raises the stakes in Prempro litigation to a new level for Wyeth,'' said Brian Turner, a Birmingham, Alabama- based lawyer who represents women suing the drugmaker over the medicines. ``This verdict should get the attention of Wyeth's board and its shareholders.''

The three women's suits, which were combined for trial, are among about 5,300 against Madison, New Jersey-based Wyeth over its menopause drugs, which include Prempro and Premarin. As many as 6 million women took the pills to treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings before a 2002 study highlighted their links to cancer.

Wyeth lawyer Heidi Hubbard and Zoe Littlepage, the women's lawyer, declined to comment on the verdict, the largest so far in Prempro litigation. Jurors are scheduled to return Oct. 12 to consider whether to assess punitive damages against Wyeth.

$2 Billion Sales

Annual sales of Wyeth's hormone-replacement drugs topped $2 billion before the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, suggested women using the medicines had a 24 percent higher risk of breast cancer. The drugs, which are still on the market, generated more than $1 billion in sales in 2006.

Lawyers for Rowatt, Scofield and Forrester argued in the Reno case that Wyeth officials turned a blind eye to Prempro's health risks and failed to properly warn doctors and consumers about the drug's cancer link to boost profits.

Wyeth's lawyers insisted the company conducted extensive safety tests on the drugs and warned of the risks through prescription labels and information sheets. The company has won two federal-court suits over Prempro as well one case filed in state court in Philadelphia since litigation over the drug began in August 2006.

Three other Philadelphia juries have found the drugs contributed to the development of breast cancer in women and ordered the company to pay a total of $3 million in damages. Judges later threw out those verdicts because of flaws in the cases.

Prempro Combination

Until 1995, many menopausal women combined Premarin, Wyeth's estrogen-based drug, with progestin-laden Provera to relieve their symptoms. That year, Wyeth combined the two hormones in its Prempro pill after winning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the treatment.

Rowatt, 66, Scofield, 69, and Forrester, 64, all used Wyeth's hormone replacement drugs for different lengths of times, according to court records.

Rowatt, a retired U.S. Defense Department employee, used the medicines for more than seven years. Forrester, a former administrative assistant, used them for more than nine years. Scofield, a homemaker, was on the hormone-replacement therapies for 15 years.

Jurors awarded Forrester a total of $47.5 million in compensatory damages, $43.5 million to Scofield and $43.5 million to Rowatt.

The panel also found that ``Wyeth concealed a material fact about the safety of the product'' from all three women and ``acted with malice or fraud,'' according to court records.

The case is Arlene Rowatt, et. al., v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., 04-01699, Second Judicial District Court, State of Nevada, Washoe County (Reno).

Wyeth is disputing the $134 in damages awarded in this case. Read more from this news report.

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/15649652.html

Wyeth back in Court

Posted: 5:32 PM Feb 14, 2008
Last Updated: 5:32 PM Feb 14, 2008
Reporter: Terri Russell
------------------------------------------------
Breast Cancer survivor Arlene Rowatt sat through the nearly two hour hearing, listening to why she is and isn't entitled to the 43-million dollars she received from a jury last October.

"In my mind the way I see it. They are fined. And they say we don't deserve a fine. Even though the jury found us guilty we don't believe we have to pay anything, we paid."

Rowatt and two other women sued the pharmaceutical company, saying their hormone medications both Premarin and Prempro, gave them breast cancer.

In the end the jury in the case awarded the women 35-million dollars in compensatory damages and 99-million in punitive damages.

Wyeth says that's 30-times greater than than damages awarded in other cases and two-times the profit Wyeth made here in Nevada during the period of time the women were taking their drug.

Plaintiff Jeraldine Scofield says that's the point of punitive damages, to punish.

"It's frustrating and I think it is sad that people can look at this and not know really how serious it is and how badly it affects the rest of your life and your family."

Judge Robert Perry says he'll make a decision no later than Tuesday. He must determine if the jury based its decision on prejudice or passion or something outside that which was admitted in court.

Legal experts say it would be rare for the judge to lower a jury award because that's the function of a jury. The case though could easily be appealed to Nevada's Supreme Court.

Judge to rule if Wyeth must pay $134M to 3 Nevada women

SCOTT SONNER
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 14, 2008

RENO, Nev. - A judge will decide by early next week whether to reduce a $134 million judgment that jurors awarded three Nevada women in October after deciding drug-maker Wyeth caused the women's breast cancer.

Washoe County District Court Judge Robert Perry said he'll issue a written ruling by Tuesday on the giant pharmaceutical company's request to find the award illegally excessive and slash it to closer to $5 million.

"I've been considering this issue for a long time," Perry said at the close of a 90-minute hearing Thursday.

The judgment remains the largest award to date against the Madison, N.J.-based company, which faces about 5,300 similar lawsuits across the country in state and federal courts.

All involve the drugs Premarin, an estrogen replacement, and Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin. The drugs are prescribed to women to ease menopause symptoms.

Wyeth lawyer Dan Webb said the jury verdict is "an extreme aberration" , 30 times greater than juries have awarded in four similar cases.

"It's an injustice," he said.

The jurors in Reno awarded Jeraldine Scofield, 74, of Fallon; Arlene Rowatt, 67, of Incline Village; and Pamela Forrester, 65, of Yerington, a combined $35 million for medical expenses and physical and emotional pain and suffering.

The same panel then awarded the women $99 million in punitive damages.

Webb said no punitive damages are warranted because the $35 million in compensatory damages was more than enough to punish Wyeth and make sure the company doesn't harm anyone else.

"That's a huge punishment. ... $35 million is twice the amount of Wyeth's profits in the state of Nevada during the time the plaintiffs were taking the drugs," he said. He argued the compensatory damages should be $1 million to $2 million per woman.

Zoe Littlepage, a lawyer for the women, said the jurors' award was "very reasonable" given they "found this company caused these three women to get breast cancer."

"But for taking this drug, they would not have gotten breast cancer," she said.

Littlepage said Wyeth was trying to minimize the harm caused the women, two of whom had mastectomies.

"This is not an insignificant injury these women went through," she said. "It is not the same as losing a finger or a toe. A breast to a woman is her sexuality."

"When a company stands up and says the value is zero, it makes me very angry. I think these women deal with tremendous pain and suffering every day."

Little said the punitive award was "an insignificant amount of Wyeth's net worth" , less than 1 percent of its $14.65 billion.

During the monthlong trial, Wyeth lawyers said that information about possible risks is included with every prescription and was provided to the women's doctors.

They argued that the women had other risk factors, making it impossible to link their cancer with the hormone replacement drugs.

Concern over the drugs surfaced in July 2002, when the federal Women's Health Initiative halted a study after women taking estrogen-progestin pills showed higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer and other problems.

The study led to new warning labels on the drugs, and doctor groups began urging women to use the lowest dose for the shortest time possible to treat hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.

The drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and remain on the market.

"We are a highly regulated company," Webb said.

"The FDA monitored our conduct, approved the label. No disciplinary action was ever taken. FDA was right there with this throughout the whole course of events," he said.

The judge reduced the $134 million judgement in this case to $58 million. Read more from CNN:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/20/news/companies/bc.na.fi...section=money_latest

Judge cuts $134M judgment in Wyeth suit
Damages in the case, which claims the drugs Premarin and Prempro caused breast cancer in three women, ordered to be reduced to about $58M.

February 20 2008: 9:07 AM EST

RENO, Nevada (AP) -- Citing concerns that "passion and prejudice" inflated the verdict, a judge slashed a $134 million jury award to three Nevada women who claimed a drug made by Wyeth caused their breast cancer.

Washoe County District Judge Robert Perry on Tuesday granted the drugmaker's motion to find the damages excessive. He ordered them reduced to about $58 million total - $23 million in compensatory and $35 million in punitive damages.

The reduced judgment remains the largest personal injury award in Nevada history, lawyers for the women said, and it is the largest award to date against the Madison, N.J.-based company, which faces about 5,300 similar lawsuits across the country in state and federal courts.

All the cases involve the drugs Premarin, an estrogen replacement, and Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin. The drugs are prescribed to women to ease menopause symptoms.

Perry said the jury's judgment of $35 million in compensatory and $99 million in punitive suggested the amounts were "the result of passion and prejudice."

"The court believes that this reduction in damages adequately compensates plaintiffs for the serious consequences which the jury found to have been caused by defendant, while also serving to punish defendant and deter others from similar conduct," he wrote.

Wyeth officials welcomed the ruling but still planned to appeal.

Jury hits Wyeth with $134.5M in damages
"While it's encouraging the district court has acknowledged the excessiveness of the award to some extent, it doesn't change the fact that the verdict was irreparably flawed and fraught with error," Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus said.

Lawyers for the women said the ruling did not diminish the company's role in their breast cancer.

"Wyeth has been exposed for its role in causing countless breast cancers in thousands of women across the country, and today's verdict reduction to just short of $60 million does nothing to change the gravity of Wyeth's wrongdoing," Peter Wetherall said.

Wyeth lawyer Dan Webb had argued the jury verdict in October was "an extreme aberration" -30 times greater than juries have awarded in four similar cases.

"It's an injustice," he said. He argued for combined damages of about $5 million for the three women.

Petkus said that of five other similar cases that have gone to trial against Wyeth, four resulted in verdicts for Wyeth while the other was remanded for a new trial.

Jurors in the Reno case had awarded Jeraldine Scofield, 74, of Fallon; Arlene Rowatt, 67, of Incline Village; and Pamela Forrester, 65, of Yerington, a combined $35 million for medical expenses and physical and emotional pain and suffering. The same panel then awarded the women $99 million in punitive damages.

Perry's new ruling awards Rowatt $7.6 million in compensatory and $10 million in punitive damages. Forrester was awarded $8 million compensatory and $13 million punitive, and Scofield gets $7.3 million compensatory and $12 million punitive.

Zoe Littlepage, a lawyer for the women, had argued the jurors' award was "very reasonable" given they "found this company caused these three women to get breast cancer."

"But for taking this drug, they would not have gotten breast cancer," she said.

Perry said the women had offered "very limited evidence and argument in support of compensatory damages," limited primarily to past medical bills. But he said the punitive damages were different matter.

"There was substantial evidence from which the jury could conclude that Wyeth knew that its product could cause breast cancer, that it intentionally failed to conduct adequate tests, that it financed and manipulated scientific studies and sponsored articles in professional and scientific journals that deliberately minimized the risk of cancer while over-promoting certain benefits and citing others which it knew to be unsubstantiated," Perry wrote.

Wyeth's (WYE, Fortune 500) shares closed 4.5% higher Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange

Wyeth is now appealing this decision. Read more here:

http://www.dbtechno.com/health/2008/03/08/wyeth-appeals...breast-cancer-cases/

Las Vegas (dbTechno) - Pharmaceutical giant Wyeth has announced that they have filed an appeal in regards to the court ruling in favor of three women from Nevada, as well as an Arkansas case. The three women were awarded $58 million, as the court agreed that one of Wyeth’s drugs caused their breast cancer. The drugs in question are Premarin and Prempro.

Wyeth filed the appeal in court on Wednesday, asking for an overturn of the February 21st ruling by Washoe County District Judge Robert Perry.

They filed the appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court.

Premarin and Prempro, the drugs in question, is in the middle of more than 5,000 similar lawsuits which Wyeth is now facing.

The first drug, Premarin, is an estrogen replacement drug, while the second, Prempro, is a combo drug, combining estrogen and progestin.

The drugs are given to women to help them get through menopause.

They have already filed an appeal for the Nevada case, where $58 million was awarded to 74-year-old Jeraldine Scofield, 68-year-old Arlene Rowatt, and 65-year-old Pamela Forrester.

They are also going to likely appeal another ruling in Arkansas, where they were ordered to pay $27 million to a women who got breast cancer from the drugs.

http://www.wxvt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8305358&nav=menu1344_2

Prempro maker argues to strike $27M damage award

Associated Press - May 10, 2008 6:44 PM ET

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Drugmakers Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Upjohn Company have asked a federal judge to void a $27 million punitive damage award to a woman who developed breast cancer after taking hormone treatments that she claimed caused her illness.

A federal jury in March awarded the sum to Donna Gail Scroggin - $19.3 million from Wyeth and $7.7 million from Provera maker Upjohn. Jurors concluded that Wyeth inadequately warned Scroggin that its drugs Premarin and Prempro carried an increased risk of breast cancer. The jury awarded Scroggin $2.75 million in compensatory damages.

At a hearing Friday, attorneys for the drug companies argued that the jury erred in issuing punitive damages. The lawyers say the companies engaged in no effort to hide information about risks of the drugs.

Scroggin took the hormones for 11 years, then was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now age 66, she had a double mastectomy and is free of cancer.

The judge is to rule later on the appeal.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.