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Court Restores $28 Million Punitives Award in HRT Case

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
February 28, 2012

The Pennsylvania Superior Court has restored the $28 million in punitive damages a Philadelphia jury awarded to an Illinois plaintiff who said drugmakers Wyeth and Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. failed to warn her doctor of the risks of breast cancer from using hormonal drugs, which are often prescribe to ease women's menopausal symptoms. The trial judge had reduced the punitive damages award to $1 million.

In a companion opinion, the same Superior Court panel reduced the $75 million in punitive damages awarded to another Illinois plaintiff who also alleged Wyeth failed to warn prescribing physicians of the substantially increased risk of breast cancer from using estrogen- and progesterone-related hormone-replacement therapy drugs.

The trial judge had remitted the punitive damages award in that case to $5.62 million, but the Superior Court remitted the punitive damages award to $7.49 million. Wyeth was found 60% liable for the plaintiff's injuries and Upjohn was found 40% liable for the plaintiff's injuries. Wyeth and Upjohn are now both subsidiaries of Pfizer.

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