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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Justices Reject Pfizer on Menopause Drug Case

(CN) - The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Pfizer Inc.'s appeal of a $2.7 million compensatory award to an Arkansas woman who said the company's menopause drugs Premarin and Prempro gave her breast cancer.

Donna Scroggin of Little Rock, Ark., sued Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Upjohn Co., claiming she got breast cancer after taking the hormone replacement drugs.

Both Wyeth and Upjohn are owned by Pfizer Inc.

A jury awarded Scroggin $27 million in punitive damages, finding that the pharmaceutical company failed to warn that its drugs came with an increased risk of cancer.

A federal judge tossed the punitive damages award, finding that a former Food and Drug Administration official's testimony shouldn't have been allowed at trial. The 8th Circuit ordered a partial retrial to determine punitive damages.

The Supreme Court allowed for a new trial on the damages award.

The company "acted responsibly by conducting or supporting more than 180 studies on hormone therapy's benefits and risks, keeping the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully informed, and providing proper, accurate and science-based information to patients and doctors," Pfizer told The Associated Press.

Chief Justice John Roberts did not participate in the discussion.

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