"We plan to fight every case."
So say Wyeth at the start of the first "fountain of youth" case against their HRT product Prempro.
Sounds a bit like the Merck (Vioxx) lawyers doesnt it?
This first of more than 5,000 suits involving Wyeth's hormone replacement drugs is scheduled to go to trial today in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, Arkansas. A second is scheduled to begin in September in a Pennsylvania state court in Philadelphia.
Shannon Pettypiece and Sophia Pearson of Bloomberg News have an excellent briefing report in the International Herald Tribune.
The "every case" defence is standard for this type of situation.
Merck are still stonewalling with Vioxx. They will continue to do this until they get a feel for how much they might have to pay out in total if they agreed to settle.
This is where Wyeth have more "experience".
They had a similar problem in the past with the fenfluramine (Pondimin/Redux) part of the "phen-fen" diet drug issue.
That cost them $21 billion!
Insider's view: it will depend on how well the plaintiffs use Wyeth's CEO Robert Essner's own words and other marketing materials to show that they oversold the product.
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