Pfizer ordered to pay $103 million in punitive damages in hormone drug cases.

On the front page of its Business Day section, the New York Times (11/24, B1, Wilson) reports, "Pfizer has been ordered to pay a total of $103 million in punitive damages to two women who were found to have breast cancer after they used" the hormone drugs Premarin and Prempro. Pfizer units Pharmacia and Wyeth "marketed the drugs as a standard, long-term hormone treatment for menopausal women, until medical evidence emerged indicating that such therapy raised women's risk of breast cancer." The FDA "added black-box warnings to the drugs' labels" after the finding, "cautioning that they be used at the smallest possible doses for the shortest possible time." Now, a jury has "reached a $28 million judgment" in a case Monday, "while a judge unsealed a month-old $75 million judgment in the other case."
Lawyers for the plaintiff Monday noted, "This is just the tip of the iceberg as Wyeth faces lawsuits from more than 10,000 additional women who also claim that Wyeth's drugs gave them breast cancer," Bloomberg News (11/24, Feeley, Pearson) reports. But, a Pfizer spokesman said that "of the 34 trial-set cases to date, there have been only four plaintiffs' verdicts that have not been set aside." The Legal Intelligencer (11/24, Elliott-Engel) and the Wall Street Journal (11/24, Loftus) also covered the story.

Florida jury orders Philip Morris to pay $300M to former smoker.

The AP (11/19) reported, "South Florida jury on Thursday ordered Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million to a former smoker, agreeing that the tobacco company's negligence was the cause of her emphysema. The award for Cindy Naugle, 61, is the largest to date among thousands of lawsuits filed in the state against tobacco companies." Richard A. Daynard, chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project, said, "Large verdicts encourage other large verdicts," adding, "This gives jurors permission to fully compensate plaintiffs for all the harm they suffered and to express their moral outrage at the industry's behavior."
Bloomberg News (11/20, Pettersson) reports, "Altria, based in Richmond, Virginia, said it will seek 'further review' of the verdict." Reuters (11/20, Keating) also covered the story.

Judge orders Pfizer to pay $75 million in punitive damages in Prempro case.

Bloomberg News (11/5, Feeley) reports, "Pfizer Inc. must pay about $75 million in punitive damages to an Illinois woman who developed cancer after taking one of the drugmaker's menopause treatments, people familiar with a sealed verdict in the case said." A judge ordered Pfizer's Wyeth unit "to pay the bad-conduct award, which is about 20 times larger than the $3.7 million in actual damages the panel awarded to Connie Barton over her use of Wyeth's Prempro menopause drug." At issue in the case was whether "Prempro helped cause the illness and the manufacturer failed to warn Barton and her doctors adequately about the drug's risks." The award "is the third surviving verdict in Prempro cases since juries began deciding them in 2006." A spokesman for Pfizer said the company plans "to ask the judge to reject both the compensatory and punitive awards."