Pfizer Facing Huge Litigation Bill for HRT Medications

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer (New York, NY, USA) has acknowledged it faces huge settlements for hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) drugs.

The company has stated, in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC; Washington DC, USA) that it has put aside US$772 million to resolve claims. Experts expect, however, that the amount will be much higher, and so does Pfizer; the company said that the amount it put aside is "the minimum expected costs to resolve all of the other outstanding."

The source of the claims against Pfizer originate from the purchase of pharmaceutical company Wyeth in 2009 for $67 million, in which Pfizer inherited that company's claims, including those related to PremPro, a prescription drug for symptoms linked to the menopause, such as mood swings and hot flashes. Pfizer has not revealed how many cases are still outstanding, but it is known that before the takeover by Pfizer, Wyeth was facing 9,900 pending cases, of which 3,000 cases were dismissed before they came to trial. The move is seen by experts as a positive one that will give Pfizer the opportunity to resolve a long-standing litigation so that it can move forward again.

Prempro--now known as Premarin--is the commercial name for compound drug consisting primarily of conjugated estrogens. More than 13,000 people sued Wyeth between 2002 and 2009, claiming a link between the drug and cancer. However, Wyeth and other pharmaceutical companies have prevailed in the vast majority of HRT cases previously set for trial through a combination of rulings by judges, verdicts by juries, and dismissals by plaintiffs themselves; of the company's losses, two of the jury verdicts were reversed post-trial and others are being challenged on appeal. Wyeth also has won five summary judgments on Prempro cases and had 15 cases that were set for trial voluntarily dismissed by plaintiffs.

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