Personal Injury Blog

Pfizer to Pay $45 million in Prempro Breast Cancer Lawsuit

January 10th, 2012
prempro breast cancer lawsuit

An appeals court has ruled that Pfizer Inc. must pay more than $45 million to 2 women who alleged that they developed breast cancer as a result of taking Prempro.

An appeals court has ruled that Pfizer Inc. must pay more than $45 million to 2 women who alleged that they developed breast cancer as a result of taking the company’s menopause drug, Prempro.

The 2 women had filed a Prempro breast-cancer lawsuit against Pfizer’s units Wyeth and Pharmacia & Upjohn.  In their lawsuit, Connie Barton and Donna Kendall claimed that the medication caused their breast cancer.  In Barton’s case, a jury in Philadelphia awarded $3.7 million in compensatory damages and more than $35 million in punitive damages in October 2009.  However, a judge reduced the punitive award to $5.8 million.  Another jury awarded $6.3 million in compensatory damages and $28 million in punitive damages to Kendall.  However that punitive damages award was cut to $1 million by another judge.  Now, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled that Pfizer Inc. must pay both women $45 million in damages.

The company faces hundreds of lawsuits related to the Prempro medications.  At one point, the company faced more than 10,000 claims that the anti-menopause medications caused breast cancer.  Some of the suits have already been settled, and Pfizer is already in the process of settling the remaining lawsuits.  The company has set aside $840 million to settle the Prempro lawsuits.  According to company officials, the company has settled close to 50 percent of the claims.

At the height of its popularity, more than 6 million women in the country used Prempro and other related menopause medications.  At one point, up to 20% of postmenopausal American women used Prempro to treat symptoms of menopause.  The drugs were taken to deal with common symptoms of menopause, like hot flashes and mood swings. That was before San Diego defective product attorneys learned about Prempro’s link to breast cancer.

In 2002, a study found that Prempro use increased the risk of breast cancer.  Another study that was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the use of Prempro not only increased the risk of breast cancer, but also increased the likelihood that the cancer would spread to the lymph nodes.  These women were found to be much more likely to die of breast cancer.

In December, Pfizer was ordered to pay $72 million to 3 women who alleged that their breast cancer was caused by the company’s hormone replacement drug.  The women alleged that they develop breast cancer after long-term therapy with Prempro.

Posted by Robert Reeves at 6:19 pm: No comments

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