Lawsuit Claims Menopause Drug Caused Fatal Cancer

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Lawsuit Claims Menopause Drug Caused Fatal Cancer

A $30 million wrongful death lawsuit filed in San Antonio today claims the popular hormone replacement therapy drug Prempro was responsible for a Texas woman's fatal breast cancer.

Attorney Christopher Nichols of the Houston firm of Littlepage Booth compared the lawsuit to groundbreaking litigation over the drug FenPhen, and with the tobacco and asbestos cases.

"This is a way to let everyone across the country to know that this is a claim that potentially affects hundreds of thousands or millions of woman, and it is very viable," Nichols said.

The lawsuit names Wyeth Pharmaceuticals of Pennsylvania, a division of Madison New Jersey based Wyeth Corporation, which was the maker Prempro, which was one of the world's most popular hormone replacement therapy drugs.

It claims Barbara House of Waco Texas died of breast cancer which was directly caused by Prempro, which she was taking as part of her physician prescribed HRT.

The lawsuit says Wyeth failed to warn House that Prempro had been linked to 'potentially fatal strokes, heart attacks, blood clots, cardiovascular disease, and breast cancer.'

House died in October of 2000.

"As these women learn more about this drug and about the harmful effects, I think they we will be seeing more of these claims," Nichols said.

The lawsuit seeks $30 million in damages. Nichols says he is not seeking to make his lawsuit into a class action, although he expects class action cases will be filed if House's claims are successful.

Several class action lawsuits are in the works, according to Nichols.

Until June of 2002, Wyeth was known as "American Home Products."

HRT's were prescribed to fight the symptoms of menopause and to prevent the development of chronic conditions, like osteoperosis. As many as 17 million American women took Prempro for relief of these conditions.

In July of 2002, the Women's Health Initiative halted a massive 12 year research project into HRT treatment, after determining that HRT significantly increased a woman's risk for breast cancer, strokes, heart attacks, and blood clots.

"The overall risks of Prempro," the FDA said at the time, "particularly for breast cancer, exceeded the benefits of the drug."

[Shannon]

Wonder why it took so long. In case you're wondering what Prempro stands for, it's "Prem" for Premarin and "pro" for progesterone. Both are the synthetic forms and far from natural. Premarin actually stands for pregnant mare (that's right, as in horse) urine. That's where the estrogen in Premarin comes from. Mix it up with some synthetic progesterone and you have Prempro. Fob it off on the American women and then you have billions of dollars.