Drug company Wyeth pays big for causing breast cancer

The Cancer Blog - by The Cancer Blog - Feb. 21, 2007 (Opinion)
Wyeth officials say their hormone replacement therapy Prempro is not the cause of one Ohio woman's breast cancer. But two jury decisions prove otherwise.

The first jury, in October, awarded Jennie Nelson and her husband $1.5 million in compensatory damages, validating Nelson's claim that her breast cancer -- resulting in a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation -- was caused by the Prempro she took for six years. When this verdict was ... More »
Review | Like | Submitted by Kaizar Campwala
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3.6
by Marty Heyman - Feb. 22, 2007 - See Full Review (10 answers)
Notes: This is a potentially important story for patients taking this or other drugs. It reports trial results and awards and the opinions of both sides on the merits of the claims and case. It is a shame the blog author didn't have a quote from the pharmaceutical compay but he does try to provide some balance lacking that. Note that the heavily updated Bloomberg story (linked) manages to get some quotes from the company and a supporting spokesperson.

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3.0
by Kaizar Campwala - Feb. 21, 2007 - See Full Review (1 answer)
Kaizar submitted this story.

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2.9
by Joe Pallas - Feb. 26, 2007 - See Full Review (6 answers)
Notes: This story is written in a journalistic style, but it is very biased reporting. Beginning with the second sentence, the story abandons objectivity by suggesting that a verdict in a civil trial is "proof." Also, the story quotes the plaintiff's lawyer directly, but has no direct quotes from anyone representing Wyeth (although it does attribute statements to Wyeth).

Silhoutte_sml
4.7
by Bonnie Britt - Feb. 21, 2007 - See Full Review (12 answers)
Notes: This is an important story and it is not obvious why it did not receive more attention except to observe that some mainstream publications play follow the leader in promoting fluff rather than stories that maybe critical of their advertisers. While the Cancer Blog got it right, I would have preferred to see links to news stories confirming the trial's outcome in the Cancer Blog report. The Cancer Blog, however, correctly reported the outcome whereas law.com got it inexplicably wrong ... More »

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Topics Health, Business | Cancer, Health Care
Member Tags Wyeth, Premarin, Prempro
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Submitted by Submitted by Kaizar Campwala - Feb 21, 2007 - 9:23 AM PST
Reviewed by Kaizar Campwala (review), Bonnie Britt (review), Marty Heyman (review), Joe Pallas (review)
Edited by Kaizar Campwala - Feb 21, 2007 - 9:23 AM PST
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