The woman's husband was also awarded damages to the tune of $500,000 after it was revealed that the drug was responsible for causing the woman's breast cancer.
It seems that Mary Daniel, aged 60, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, developed breast cancer after taking Prempro for a 16 month period to treat the symptoms of menopause.
Daniel began taking Prempro in late 1999, and was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2001.
She then underwent two surgeries as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy for the cancer.
The trial heard evidence that Wyeth had known for decades that the drug was linked with an increased risk of developing breast cancer in postmenopausal women but still failed to provide adequate warnings about such a risk, despite the worldwide use of the drug.
Daniel's lawyer has accused Wyeth of placing financial profit above the safety of patients.
Reports indicate that Wyeth could now be facing as many as 5,000 liability lawsuits over its hormone replacement drugs; this case is only the third lawsuit involving Prempro to reach a verdict.
Wyeth has to date lost two of the three cases but has declined to comment on the latest verdict.
The jury also found Wyeth guilty of conduct which was "malicious, wanton, willful or oppressive or showed reckless indifference to the interest of others" in its failure to provide proper warnings about its HRT drugs, taken by millions of women to treat symptoms of menopause.
However, "the review findings do confirm modest, but real therapeutic benefits from the use of aromatase inhibitors in a variety of clinical settings," Bliss said.
Edith Perez, M.D., an oncologist with the Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Program at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., said, "The results of the review are not a surprise. These are good drugs and they have positively impacted the lives of patients with breast cancer." Perez is not associated with the review.
Perez believes that aromatase inhibitors are the first drug of choice for hormonal treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women. "They have a slightly improved efficacy over tamoxifen, and they have a much lower rate of blood clots in the legs and lungs," she said. "Aromatase inhibitors carry almost no risk of uterine cancer, and while that rarely happens with tamoxifen, it does happen."
On the other hand, Perez said that aromatase inhibitors do carry a risk of increased joint aches and, more importantly, may cause bone loss. "The majority of patients do very well but we recommend patients have bone density tests before using these drugs. I would probably not use aromatase inhibitors in a patient with severe osteoporosis."
While per-tablet cost of aromatase inhibitors is higher than tamoxifen, Perez said that they are still cost-effective because they have fewer side effects requiring treatment and they result in increased overall survival.
"It's no question that these drugs are better for patients when compared with other hormone therapies," Perez said.
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