Is Prempro, the hormone drug known to increase the risk of breast cancer, a public hazard?
If a judge in Pinellas County determines that it is, hundreds of thousands of documents now under seal in lawsuits against the drug's manufacturer nationwide could be released for the public to inspect.
The key to the confidential company records has ended up in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Anthony Rondolino's hands because of a clerical misstep and a unique Florida statute.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Monday, though attorneys were negotiating a possible resolution late Thursday.
More than 9,000 women have sued Pfizer's Wyeth unit, the maker of Prempro and Premarin, claiming its bestselling hormone drugs caused breast cancer and stroke. The vast majority of those lawsuits have been consolidated in federal courts in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada.
But the case of Loretta Esposito, a 63-year-old Clearwater resident who died of breast cancer in 2006, slipped through the cracks, making it the only Wyeth case in a Florida court. That could subject it to the state's Sunshine in Litigation Law, which prohibits the court from keeping papers secret if they concern a public hazard.
Citing this statute, Esposito's attorneys have refused to agree to the confidentiality order Wyeth has required other plaintiffs' attorneys to sign before giving them access to an estimated 16 million discovery documents.
During a hearing in the spring, James Clark, the Tampa lawyer who represents the deceased woman's husband, Peter Esposito, said the agreement would "be asking us and enticing us and luring our client through us — and the court — to violate Florida law … because it's our position that the product isn't okay."
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