Date: 08-20-2010

Case Style: Sharon Buxton and Joy Henry v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Pfizer, Inc.

Case Number: 040700202

Judge: James M. Lynn

Court: Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Plaintiff's Attorney: Zoe Littlepage, Littlepage Booth, Houston, Texas; Lee Balefsky, Kline & Specter, Philadelphia; James Morris, Steve Faires and Katie Starr, Morris Law firm, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Austin, Texas; Brian Ketterer, Janet, Jenner & Suggs, Baltimore, Maryland

Defendant's Attorney: Beth Wilkinson and Alex Young K. Oh, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, L.L.P., Washington, D.C.; Mike Scott, Andrew Trevelise, George McDavid, Shana Russo and Ira Lefton, Reed Smith, L.L.P., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Kelley Grady, Ballard Spahr Andrews Ingersol, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Richard Bassett, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Steve Matthews, Porzio, Bromberg & Newman P.C., Morristown, New Jersey; Therese Keeley, Levine, Staller, Sklar, Chan, Brown & Donnelly, Cape May, New Jersey; Jane Bockus, Clark, Thomas & Winters, San Antonio, Texas; Lauren Handler, Genevieve Spires, and Spring Potoczak, Porzio, Bromberg & Newman P.C., Morristown, New Jersey; Eric Paine, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, L.L.P., Columbia, South Carolina; Judy Leone and Elizabeth Balakhani, Dechert, L.L.P., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Description: Sharon Buxton and Joy Henry sued Pfizer, Inc. on products liability theories claiming that they developed breast cancer as a direct result of having taken Pfizer's menopause drug Prempro.

Pfizer denied that Prempro caused the cancers developed by Plaintiffs. It asserted that: “The vast majority of women who take hormone therapy do not get breast cancer.”

More than 6 million women took hormone drugs to treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings before the Women’s Health Initiative, a National Institutes of Health- sponsored study, concluded they posed an increased cancer risk.

Outcome: Defendant's verdict.

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: Editor's Note: This case represents an example of the process that defendants in mass tort cases go through in determining how much they will pay to plaintiffs to settle claims. The select a number of cases to try to verdict to see how many they win and how many they lose and how much the loses cost the. Eventually, a matrix will be developed and based on that matrix the cases will be settled without further litigation.