Pfizer Loses Appeal of $58 Million Prempro Jury Award
Pfizer Inc. doesn’t deserve a new trial in a Nevada case over the company’s menopause drugs and must pay a $57.6 million jury award to three women who alleged the pills caused their cancers, the state’s highest court ruled.
The Nevada Supreme Court concluded today that jurors properly held Pfizer’s Wyeth unit responsible for hiding the breast-cancer risks of its Premarin and Prempro menopause drugs. The original award totaled $134.1 million in damages to Arlene Rowatt, Jeraldine Scofield and Pamela Forrester. The verdict later was reduced to $57.6 million by the trial judge.
The awards “are supported by substantial evidence” and are “reasonable and proportionate” to Wyeth’s actions, the justices decided.
The women’s lawsuit is among more than 8,000 claims against Wyeth and another Pfizer unit over the drugs, according to a Wyeth regulatory filing. More than 6 million women took the pills to treat symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings before a 2002 study highlighted the drugs’ links to cancer.
Pfizer spokesman Christopher Loder said the company is disappointed with the decision and is considering further appeal. “Hormone therapy medicines are an important treatment option for many women with the debilitating symptoms of menopause,” he said.
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Zoe Littlepage didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
Health Study
Annual sales of Wyeth’s hormone-replacement drugs exceeded $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.
Until 1995, many patients combined Premarin, Wyeth’s estrogen-based drug, with progestin-laden Provera, made by Pfizer’s Pharmacia & Upjohn unit. Wyeth combined the two hormones in Prempro. The drugs are still on the market.
New York-based Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, completed its $68 billion purchase of Wyeth last year.
Wyeth has lost seven of 11 cases over the drugs that have been considered by juries since the claims began going to trial in 2006. The Nevada case was the first in which jurors found the Pfizer unit should pay punitive damages. Several verdicts against the drugmaker were later thrown out.
Rowatt, 67, Scofield, 74, and Forrester, 64 at the time of the verdict, alleged Wyeth officials ignored Prempro’s health risks and failed to properly warn doctors and consumers about the drug’s cancer link to boost profits.
Rowatt, Scofield and Forrester all used Wyeth’s hormone replacement drugs to treat menopause symptoms, according to court records. Forrester died in 2008.
The original case is Rowatt v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., 04-01699, Second Judicial District Court, State of Nevada, Washoe County (Reno).
To contact the reporters on this story: Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware, at pmilford@bloomberg.net; Jef Feeley in Wilmington at jfeeley@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
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