Wyeth Wins Prempro Trial in Federal Court in Arkansas

Article in the Wall Street Journal -- Jury Finds for Wyeth In Hormone-Drug Trial, by the Associated Press:

A federal jury ruled for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals on Thursday in the latest lawsuit claiming that the company's hormone-replacement drugs cause breast cancer.

After deliberating for more than a day, a jury in Little Rock sided with New Jersey-based Wyeth in a case filed by Helene Rush of Little Rock.

In her lawsuit, Ms. Rush accused the drug maker of negligence in its hormone replacement therapy. More than 5,000 similar suits have been filed across the country.

Ms. Rush, 72 years old, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. Her attorneys say she took Wyeth's estrogen-progestin hormone therapy for nearly a decade.

Lawyers for Wyeth said Ms. Rush likely would have developed breast cancer regardless of whether she took Premarin and Prempro because of genetic and health factors, such as weight gain and a history of smoking.

BGS