Pfizer Bigger and More Profitable--Victims Wait for Justice
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Pfizer’s $68 billion merger with Wyeth should be completed on October 15, 2009, following recent approval by the Federal Trade Commission. The merger was approved by the European Union in July of 2009.
Wyeth and Pfizer have been embroiled as co-defendants in litigation over hormone replacement therapy products for many years now. It is unknown how the merger may affect the upcoming trials that need to be scheduled for nearly 13,000 women who developed breast and ovarian cancer after long-term use of the artificial hormones.
Wyeth, who touts itself as a leader in women’s health, manufactured both Premarin and Prempro. Pfizer was the manufacturer of Provera, a drug that was taken in combination with Premarin to avoid the risks of endometrial cancer that was first noted with regard to Premarin more than 30 years ago.
Premarin, Provera, and Prempro were the hormone replacement therapy drugs ingested by most of the 13,000 plaintiffs whose cases are pending in state and federal courts in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Minnesota and elsewhere. Many of these lawsuits have been pending for more than five years, with less than fifteen trials completed so far and only a handful of cases confidentially settled. Several thousand of these women recently prevailed in an appeal to the highest court in Minnesota, after the drug manufacturers sought to dismiss their lawsuits as being barred by various state’s statues of limitations periods. Depositions and other discovery have been taken in a number of cases (known collectively as PPO #9 cases), which should be included in the first wave of remands from the multi-district litigation proceedings pending in Little Rock, Arkansas. An appeal of the Plaintiff’s verdict in the Scroggins trial is currently pending, and remands of federal cases are anticipated once that appeal is resolved. More than a dozen women who developed breast cancer after taking Premarin in combination with Provera or Prempro will present their cases to jurors in Philadelphia in the coming months, with the first verdict expected before the end of October. These cases are part of the state court coordinated mass torts proceedings pending in Philadelphia before Judge Moss.
Following completion of the merger, Pfizer will be the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Pfizer posted earnings of $48.3 billion in 2008, while Wyeth reaped $23 billion in revenue. The irony that this merger would be completed during Breast Cancer Awareness Month is not lost on many of us. One can only hope that as Wyeth and Pfizer begin this new chapter, the companies will take responsibility for the lives of so many breast cancer victims and survivors who have suffered as a result of their drugs and work towards a quicker resolution of the HRT litigation.
For more information in connection with how you can be a part of the solution to help victims of breast cancer, visit the Susan G Komen site.
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