Reno Jury Orders Wyeth to Pay $134 Million in Premarin Case

By Anastacia Mott Austin

A five-man, two-woman jury in Reno awarded three women a total of $134.5 million, after they claimed that the drug company Wyeth did not adequately study the potentially carcinogenic effects of hormone-replacement drugs Premarin and Prempro.

Jeraldine Scofield, 75, Arlene Rowatt, 67, and Pamela Forrester, 64, all suffered from breast cancer they say was caused by using the Wyeth drugs.

The drug giant faces another 5,300 cases representing almost 8,000 plaintiffs in the coming months. This week’s jury award is the largest amount claimed from Wyeth to date.

"This verdict raises the stakes in Prempro litigation to a new level for Wyeth," said Brian Turner, an Alabama attorney representing women in the cases, to the press. "This verdict should get the attention of Wyeth’s board and its shareholders.'"

The jury in the case found that Wyeth "concealed a material fact," and "acted with malice," in withholding information about the products’ risks for breast cancer.

The company argues that the safety insert in the packaging includes a warning that the drugs carry a "slightly increased" chance of breast cancer.

But the plaintiffs in the case claim that Wyeth did not perform sufficient safety testing on the drugs.

Premarin and Prempro are still on the market, and were responsible for over $1 billion in sales for Wyeth in 2006, even after a women’s health study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health in 2002, found that the drugs carried a 24 percent increased risk of breast cancer.

The jury is expected to return for deliberations later this week to determine whether punitive damages should also be awarded.

Attorneys for Wyeth declined to comment on the ongoing case, but one of the lawyers representing the women was heard in the courtroom saying to them, "You so deserve this."

So far the decision has not appeared to affect Wyeth’s stock shares, which did drop slightly by .16 cents per share to $46.