Hormone Replacement Therapy & Prempro Lawsuit

Wyeth, maker of the number one selling hormone replacement therapy Prempro, has experienced a 24% stock tumble after news that the large hormone replacement therapy study was halted because of the risk of heart disease, breast cancer, strokes, and blood clots found in healthy women on the estrogen and progestin combination. Their stock decline may indicate only the beginning of their troubles as women are scrambling to seek compensation for the injuries they are claiming to have suffered in filing homrone replacement therapy and Prempro lawsuits.

About six million American women use Prempro. Prempro is similar to other drug manufacturer's hormone replacement therapy drugs that have been used for fifty years. It was originally thought that Prempro and other hormone replacement therapy options protect against heart disease and osteoporosis and to help treat symptoms of menopause. The large federal study found that instead Prempro hormone replacement therapy increases the incidence of breast cancer by 26%, heart attacks by 29%, strokes by 41%, and double the amount of blood clots in the legs and veins.

Currently, Wyeth has been preparing for Prempro lawsuits by contacting six major law firms that focus on defending companies to make sure they can handle the high number of hormone replacement therapy and Prempro lawsuits that are expected. According to Wyeth's executive vice president and general counsel "we've been on the phone ourselves." While Wyeth vice president for global medical affairs thinks that the risk of breast cancer found in the federal study was actually lower than the risk found in other studies and already stated in the drug's label, when considering the high number of women taking the hormone replacement therapy drugs the numbers add up very quickly.

The medical world is still in shock at the news that the six million American women taking hormone replacement therapy drugs are at such a significant risk for adverse effects. Medical authorities had been telling doctors to encourage every woman who had not had a hysterectomy to start taking the drugs when reaching menopause and to continue taking the hormone replacement therapy for years and even for life. This was the first and only large study comparing the effects of hormone replacement therapy with placebos in healthy women that was scheduled to last until 2005 before the researchers halted the study. They were surprised to find what everyone had previously believed about the estrogen/progestin combination was completely unfounded. This evidence was actual scientific evidence that immediately seemed to close the long, ongoing debate on the benefits verses the risks of hormone replacement therapy.

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Hormone replacement therapy is one of the most common prescriptions available, and despite the drug's availability for decades now, Dr. Utian of the Menopause Society is not surprised that a debate continues, "There are an awful lot of interests at stake here beyond women's health. There are investigators with research grants, N.I.H. grants and grants from the pharmaceutical industry. There are academics with careers to build. It's not just a matter of what the data says. Truth is opinion."

In 1990, Wyeth had gone before the FDA requesting the label to their hormone replacement drugs be changed to include it to say their product protects against heart disease. Hormone replacement therapy skeptic, Cynthia Pearson, found not only did their claims appear to be too good to be true, but also "each time there was anything negative about the drug, a new claim arose to keep it alive." In every instance, Pearson continued to be unconvinced wondering how a drug was ever approved for women lacking a randomized clinical trial. It was not until 1991, after lobbying women's groups and criticism by congresswomen about the lack of attention paid to women's health that money was found, leading to the recently halted study.

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