› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has lost its appeal to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 14 consolidated cases alleging that its hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs had caused breast cancer. Trial lawyers say the decision, which makes the discovery rule an issue of fact for the jury, will likely affect the 15,000 HRT cases pending in lower court.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in the first of two cases this term that consumer advocates fear could shut courthouse doors to patients injured by FDA-approved drugs or medical devices.
Legal experts say the cases could also affect lawsuits already filed by tens of thousands of Americans challenging the safety of blockbuster drugs such as Celebrex and Prempro and a host of medical devices.
Wyeth must pay $134.1 million, including $99 million in punitive damages, over its mishandling of menopause drugs that helped cause three Nevada women’s cancers, a jury ruled.
Pharmaceutical giant Wyeth, ordered by a Washoe County jury to pay millions to three Northern Nevada women who claimed the company’s hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer, also is fighting more than 5,000 legal battles, a spokesman said Thursday.
Reno, Nev., (AP) – A jury has levied a $134.5 million judgment against the pharmaceutical maker Wyeth in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women who contended that the company’s hormone-replacement drugs had caused their breast cancer.
After four weeks of testimony and a full day of closing arguments, jurors will begin deliberating this morning to decide whether pharmaceutical giant Wyeth is responsible for the breast cancer suffered by three Northern Nevada women who took the company’s hormone replacement drugs.
