Fighting the Good Fight -- Hormone Replacement Therapy Litigation

John Hopkins

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They weighed profits against safety and profits won out. Women across the country lost and were forced to suffer with breast cancer. That is the conduct attached to Wyeth for their handling of hormone replacement therapy drugs (HRT).

In 1983, the Food & Drug Administration told Wyeth that human trials were necessary for the safe marketing of HRT medication, PremPro. Wyeth made the conscious decision to refuse doing the trials. Internal documents demonstrate that Wyeth refused to perform additional studies in order to conceal the risks associated with what they knew would be a drug, which would reap huge profits for Wyeth.

Women such as Connie Barton and Donna Kendall demonstrated the courage to bring Wyeth into court to answer for their conduct. Jurors who have heard evidence related to Wyeth’s negligence and intentional failures have used terms such as “despicable” and "outrageous conduct” to characterize Wyeth’s behavior.

It was not until Wyeth was forced to admit the dangers of the HRT drugs that they finally took some action. When the study through the Women’s Health Initiative was terminated due to the development of breast cancer by participants, Wyeth’s hand was forced. What did Wyeth do? They “circled the wagons”; continued to deny their fault; and stone-walled women’s claims concerning the danger of their product.

Women such as plaintiffs, Connie Barton and Donna Kendall suffered the loss of their breasts and horrible consequences of cancer treatment because a corporation thought that profit was more important than patient safety.