Philadelphia jury clears Prempro in two breast-cancer cases

A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury said Wednesday that two women's breast cancers were not linked to Wyeth's menopause drug, Prempro.

After less than four hours of deliberation, the jury rejected claims by Sharon Buxley, 66, a Tennessee resident formerly of Allentown, and Joy Henry, 75, of Harrisburg, that the hormone-replacement therapy helped cause their cancers.

The jury found that Prempro was "not a factual cause" in the development of the breast cancer.

The plaintiffs argued during the four-week trial before Common Pleas Court Judge James Murray Lynn that Pfizer Inc.'s Wyeth subsidiary knew the treatment could promote the growth of cancer and should be held legally liable.

Pfizer attorney Beth Wilkinson spoke to jurors afterward. "They clearly understood the science. They had a very good grasp of the issues." She said medical experts who are practicing physicians told the jury "they didn't believe there was evidence that Prempro caused breast cancer in these women."

In 2002, a National Institutes of Health-sponsored study concluded the menopause drug posed an increased cancer risk. Millions of women have taken hormone-replacement drugs.

Plaintiffs attorney Zoe Littlepage vehemently disagrees with Wyeth's claims of success in the long-swirling litigation.

"There have been 15 trials; plaintiffs won 11 of them," she said. "Fifteen juries have deliberated, and 11 of those juries have said the women win. In almost all the verdicts, the judge reduced the putative damage amounts because the numbers have been so high."

Pfizer contends it has been successful in 27 of 32 cases that have reached the trial stage. Five verdicts are in effect for plaintiffs, though the company says it is challenging four of them. In addition, more than 3,000 other cases were dismissed or withdrawn at the pretrial stages or before the cases were set for trial, the drugmaker said.

"We've asked Wyeth several times to prove to us where those statistics come from because it's so inconsistent with what the facts are," Littlepage said. "They have yet to ever prove to us where those statistics come from. They just say it. I've been involved in almost all the 15 trials."

Some of those verdicts have been expensive. In February, a Philadelphia jury awarded $9.45 million to a woman, Audrey Singleton, who blamed Prempro for her breast cancer. The case is on appeal.