This summer, the New Jersey-based drugmaker Wyeth faces the first of at least 4,000 lawsuits from former patients who took its menopausal treatment Prempro, a hormone therapy that provides relief from hot flashes and night sweats and can also help prevent osteoporosis.
"The overwhelming majority of women in these cases suffer from breast cancer as a result of their use of Prempro," said lawyer Tobias Millrood, whose firm Schiffrin & Barroway is representing plaintiffs in about 1,000 Prempro cases.
"Wyeth aggressively over-promoted these drugs for conditions that [weren't approved by] the FDA. [Prempro] was truly a panacea. This drug was promoted as the fountain of youth."
The first case is set to start on July 31 in federal district court in Little Rock, Ark. Plaintiff Linda Reeves, 67, of Benton, Ark., was diagnosed with breast cancer after taking Prempro for eight years for the prevention of osteoporosis, according to her lawyer, Jim Morris of Provost & Umphrey. Reeves blames Prempro for the cancer that led to her mastectomy.
"For women like Linda Reeves, the duration she took the product presents a dramatic risk for breast cancer," said Morris, who won a $1.4 million lawsuit against Wyeth in the infamous fen-phen case.
"I've got a long history of battles with Wyeth, and we look forward to once again exposing their conduct to a jury."
In 1997, when Wyeth was called American Home Products, the company pulled its diet drug cocktail known as fen-phen off the market after it was linked to heart valve disease. In 1999, the company agreed to pay a $3.75 billion settlement, which was divided among thousands of former fen-phen users.
Source: money.cnn.com
1 comment:
hope they PAY BIG. They are certainly owing these women a great deal.
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