Wyeth to pay $134.5 M in HR law suit

As a result of a law suit filed by three Nevada, USA, women against drug major Wyeth, alleging that its hormone replacement products had been the cause of their breast cancer, the jury hearing the case found in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding damages totaling $134.5 million. This is the largest amount so far against the drugmaker, which faces about 5,300 similar law suits across the country in state and federal courts, all involving its Premarin (estrogen) and Prempro (estrogen and progestin) which are used to relieve menopausal symptoms.

The jury found Wyeth to have been negligent, that its drugs were defective and that the company concealed a material fact about the products' safety, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which also noted that the jurors said that it had "acted with malice or fraud."

"These are very large numbers for compensatory damages,"said Seton Hall University law professor Howard Erichson, quoted by the Associated Press. "It has to be troubling for Wyeth because dollar figures like these suggest the jury entirely accepted the plaintiffs' version of the story and was not kindly to Wyeth at all," the professor added.