Please note a couple of important points about this article. One - you will notice that the lawyer for for Wyeth said ""We don't know what causes most people's breast cancer,"
And also please note that from this case we can see it is clear that doctors don't know the details about potential dangers of the drugs they hand out to patients.
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Sept. 11, 2006, 5:48PM
Lawyers Say Wyeth Drugs Promoted Cancer
By ANDREW DeMILLO Associated Press Writer© 2006 The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK — Attorneys for a Benton woman told a federal jury Monday that Wyeth pharmaceutical's hormone-replacement drugs might not have triggered the woman's breast cancer, but they certainly promoted it.
Attorneys for 67-year-old Linda Reeves said in closing arguments that began the fourth week of the trial that Wyeth failed to warn Reeves and other users of Premarin and Prempro of breast cancer risks despite repeated indications discovered by researchers over the years.
During the trial, the New Jersey-based drug company said that it issued sufficient warnings about the drugs' risks and that it wasn't liable for Reeves' health. In testimony, Reeves acknowledged that she had not read patient-information sheets that accompanied the drugs.
Premarin is a form of estrogen; its sister drug, Prempro, is a combination of estrogen and progestin. The drugs are used to treat women going through menopause. Reeves used either Premarin or Prempro for more than eight years before she was diagnosed with cancer in 2000.
The case is the first of approximately 4,500 lawsuits filed against Wyeth over hormone replacement therapy. Both Premarin and Prempro remain on the market, although their combined sales dropped to $909 million last year from $2.07 billion 2001.
Lawyers Monday sent the case to the federal jury. Jurors begin deliberations Tuesday.
Wyeth lawyers told jurors that the benefits of Premarin and Prempro outweighed the risks and said the drug company had informed both Reeves and her doctor of the risks associated with the drugs.
Reeves' lawyer Rainey Booth told jurors that they wouldn't need to find that hormone-replacement therapy using Wyeth's drugs caused Reeves' cancer, which was diagnosed in 2000. Booth said jurors only need to agree that the cancer progressed because of the drugs.
"This is what these drugs do," Booth said. "They promote the seed that's there and they help it grow. ... You take away the water and sunshine, you take away the growth."
Another attorney for Reeves, Zoe Littlepage, said Wyeth did not act responsibly and ignored numerous warnings of Premarin and Prempro breast cancer risks. Littlepage said the company could have conducted its own long-term study of the risks as early as 1983; she also showed the drugs' label over the years and alleged the company downplayed the breast cancer risk before 2005.
"The fact that the labels were so confusing and so wishy-washy before 2005 is because the proper studies weren't done," Littlepage said.
Plenty of research was available, she said.
"This is not that we found just one memo saying this. Wyeth was repeatedly being told there are some breast cancer issues that need to be resolved," she said.
Littlepage told jurors that if they do find in Reeves' favor they would need to look at damages for medical expenses, pain, mental anguish, and suffering and scars and disfigurement.
Littlepage described Reeves' breast cancer while she displayed a photo to jurors of Reeves and her husband Ross standing in front of a Christmas tree.
"She will never look at herself naked in the mirror the same way again," Littlepage said.
Littlepage later told jurors that Wyeth minimized the risks of Premarin and Prempro in its labels so doctors would continue prescribing the drugs.
"It's the fine print defense," Littlepage said.
Wyeth attorney Jane Bockus said the drug at the time was the most effective treatment for Reeves.
"There was nothing else on the market that was as valuable for the prevention of osteoporosis," Bockus said. "There was no other drug on the market."
Bockus noted that the drug's labeling in 1991 and 1996 did mention a potential risk of breast cancer.
"Clearly the labeling contained adequate information for Dr. (David) Caldwell and Mrs. Reeves to decide whether Premarin and later whether Prempro was right for her," Bockus said, referring to the plaintiff and her doctor.
Bockus also noticed that none of Reeves' physicians testified during the trial that hormone therapy contributed in any way to Reeves' breast cancer.
"We don't know what causes most people's breast cancer," Bockus said.
Wyeth attorney Stephen Urbanczyk accused Reeves' attorneys of taking portions of memos from the company out of context and trying to mislead jurors.
Urbanczyk and Bockus both noted that Caldwell said during testimony that the breast cancer risk of Prempro was "not that high" and noted that he still prescribes the drug to patients.
In court documents filed last month, Wyeth said its Visitors Speakers Bureau records showed that Caldwell was scheduled to speak to other doctors on the company's behalf five times but actually did so only twice. It said Caldwell had been prescribing hormone therapy for more than 20 years and was only "preaching what he practiced."
"This is a natural hormone product. It's what makes women women," Urbanczyk said. "This is not a defective product."
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