On January 30, 2007, a Philadelphia jury awarded $1.5 million to an Arkansas woman and her husband, finding that the hormone-replacement drug Prempro was responsible for her breast cancer. Mary Daniel, 60, of Hot Springs, AR, developed breast cancer after taking the Wyeth drug Prempro every day for approximately sixteen months to relieve symptoms of menopause.

The $1.5 million award to Mary Daniel and her husband Tom was in compensation for the damages she suffered since her July 2001 diagnosis, which included two surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She has been cancer-free since treatment.

Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin, was first marketed as a hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) for post-menopausal women in 1995 and is still on the market today. Mary Daniel accused Wyeth of knowing for decades of the risk associated with HRT drugs but failing to conduct safety studies to identify the quantifiable risks associated with their product. The jury found Wyeth negligent in failing to provide adequate warning to consumers about the breast cancer risk associated with taking Prempro. The jury also found that Wyeth acted with malice or reckless disregard for patient safety.

“Wyeth protected their bottom dollar instead of protecting the patients,” Mary Daniel’s personal injury lawyer, Zoe Littlepage, said in a statement.

Prior to a federal Womens Health Initiative Study in 2002 which found higher rates of breast cancer and heart attacks in women who took HRT drugs, Wyeth sold an estimated $2 billion a year worth of HRT drugs, including Prempro and Premarin. Wyeth is now facing about 4,500 personal injury lawsuits from women who may have been damaged from taking Prempro.

Source: Mary Claire Dale, “Couple awarded $1.5m in hormone lawsuit,” Associated Press, January 29, 2007; “Wyeth Loses Prempro Trial in Philadelphia,” Reuters, January 3.0, 2007.