A Philadelphia jury has ruled that two women’s breast cancer wasn’t caused by Pfizer’s menopause drug Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progesterone. The two women had sought at least $100,000 in damages; as many as 9,000 other lawsuits are pending.
“This shows that juries — at least in Philadelphia — can tell the difference between true causation and association, since the association between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer is far less established than is commonly believed,” Stier says. “This is a victory for consumers a well. A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs may be appealing to those who want to go after deep-pocketed Big Pharma, but such a transfer of wealth would be yet another impediment to innovation — which helps patients.”
