Unsafe Drugs: Wyeth Loses Prempro Trial

A state jury found Wyeth's hormone replacement therapy drug Prempro was responsible for an Arkansas woman's breast cancer and said that the U.S. drugmaker must pay $1.5 million in damages. The jury in the case decided that Wyeth was negligent in not providing more information about the increased breast cancer risk associated with Prempro.

Wyeth Loses Prempro Trial, to Pay $1.5 Million

The jury will return to decide punitive damages; they also decided that Wyeth's conduct was "malicious, wanton, willful or oppressive or showed reckless indifference to the interest of others" because of its lack of warnings about its HRT drugs. Wyeth currently faces about 5,000 product liability lawsuits involving its hormone replacement drugs. "Wyeth protected their bottom dollar instead of protecting the patients," said Zoe Littlepage, attorney for plaintiff Mary Daniel, the Arkansas woman whose breast cancer is blamed on Prempro.