Gregory Bubalo of Bubalo Law PLC in Louisville, Kentucky, has been fighting for Maggie Fraser since she was diagnosed with breast cancer after taking Wyeth Laboratory’s Prempro – over a decade ago.
Mr. Bubalo helped Fraser to obtain a $5.8 million jury verdict in 2012. When the drug maker appealed, Fraser’s legal team convinced Connecticut U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton to uphold that decision on appeal. Mr. Bubalo will continue fighting for her if the drug company refuses to do what is right.
According to an article in the Connecticut Law Tribune, Judge Arterton said that Wyeth has “engaged in a long-term campaign to muddy the waters regarding the risks posed by Prempro” and referred to Wyeth’s conduct as “reprehensible.”
Prempro is a combination of two hormones, estrogen and progestin. Approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 1994, Prempro was a best-selling product for Wyeth and its parent company Pfizer Inc., as its label touted that it could be used to:
However, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) published a study in 2002 that showed that Prempro use was increasingly being linked to breast cancer. Although still on the market, it is estimated that Prempro may be responsible for over 200,000 cases of breast cancer. Margaret “Maggie” Fraser is just one of those prescription drug injury cases, but hopefully, her recently upheld verdict will help others.
Fraser, a retired elementary school principal, sued Wyeth after she developed breast cancer linked to Prempro use. She maintained that Wyeth did not provide her doctor with adequate warnings about breast cancer risks. Simply put, she said that if she had known about the increased risk of developing breast cancer, she would not have taken the drug.
Although she and her husband filed the lawsuit in 2004, Wyeth has fought every aspect of the case since then. However, when Fraser’s case finally went to trial in April of 2012, Bubalo and a team of attorneys convinced a jury that Wyeth directed its sales representatives to mislead physicians regarding medical trial results and failed to perform studies that would have clarified the relationship between Prempro and breast cancer. After a three-and-a-half week trial, they were awarded $5.8 million – $4 million in compensatory damages and another $1.76 million in punitive damages.
Although Wyeth may appeal the decision, Bubalo says that Fraser and her husband will continue their fight in necessary:
My clients continued the fight, even after all these years, because they understood that the jury’s verdict and Judge Arterton’s opinion are important not only to them, but to others who may suffer in the future from reprehensible conduct, at the hands of a drug manufacturer.
While Wyeth has consistently maintained that the FDA has regularly reviewed the benefits and risks of Prempro and kept it on the market, the bottom line is that pharmaceutical manufacturers who put dangerous hormone replacement therapy drugs on the market such as Prempro, Premphase, Premarin, Provera, and others are ultimately responsible for the injuries their products cause, such as breast cancer, heart attack, stroke, blood clots, auto-immune disease, ovarian cancer, and gallbladder cancer.
Anyone who has been injured by a dangerous or defective drug when they were not provided adequate warnings about the drug’s side effects and increased risks of injuries or death may have legal recourse against the drug’s manufacturers, distributors, and sellers. An experienced drug injury attorney can analyze your situation and determine your legal options so that you can make an informed decision about what’s best for you and your family.
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