Community Blog
October 12, 2007
| Did you take this Drug??????????????????????? | Views: 525 |
Wyeth liable in drugs lawsuit
By SANDRA CHEREB
- External Link Wyeth
It was the largest award to date against the Madison, New Jersey-based company, which faces about 5,300 similar lawsuits across the country in state and federal courts.
“These are very large numbers for compensatory damages,” said Howard Erichson, a law professor at Seton Hall University. “It has to be troubling for Wyeth because dollar figures like these suggest the jury entirely accepted the plaintiff’s version of the story and was not kindly disposed to Wyeth at all.”
All the lawsuits involve the drugs Premarin, an estrogen replacement, and Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin. The drugs are prescribed to women to ease symptoms of menopause.
The Reno panel deliberated for two days before announcing its verdict late Wednesday in favor of Jeraldine Scofield, 75, of Fallon; Arlene Rowatt, 67, of Incline Village; and Pamela Forrester, 64, of Yerington.
The same five-man, two-woman jury will return to the courtroom Friday to consider punitive damages against the drug maker.
Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus on Thursday said the company would have no comment because the case was not finished. Washoe District Judge Robert Perry issued a gag order early in the proceedings.
But in an e-mail to The Associated Press, Petkus said 20 similar cases have gone to trial or been otherwise resolved. Of those, he said three resulted in favor of the company, two plaintiff verdicts were set aside by the courts, and three cases were dismissed on summary judgment.
Twelve other cases were voluntarily dismissed by plaintiffs before trial, he said.
During the Reno trial, Wyeth lawyers argued that the drugs are safe and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They also said information about possible risks is included with every prescription and provided to the women’s doctors.
They also argued that the women had other risk factors, making it impossible to link their cancer with the hormone replacement drugs.
All three women were awarded $7.5 million in past damages. Jurors also awarded $36 million each to Scofield and Rowatt for future damages, and $40 million to Forrester.
After the verdict was announced, the women hugged their attorneys and cried, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
“You so deserved this,” one lawyer, Zoe Littlepage, told them. “You so, so deserved this.”
Geoffrey White, another lawyer for the women, also deferred comment Thursday until after the punitive phase. He said his firm represents 102 other women in Nevada pursuing cases against Wyeth.
The drug company reached an undisclosed settlement last October with a fourth woman who had been part of the Washoe District Court lawsuit.
Carol McCreary was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 after taking Prempro for about three years. Her case was settled just days before her trial was to begin.
“I am happy to get on with my life and not spend the next several weeks in a courtroom,” she said in a statement soon after the settlement was reached.
McCreary, 59, died in April.
Wyeth shares dropped 38 cents Thursday to $45.78
Thanks for your support -