Pfizer Is Disappointed In The Prempro Verdict

As happens with all Prempro trials, the news is reporting updates at a frenzied pace. Back in September, a jury held that Pfizer must award Connie Barton $3.7 million in compensatory damages for their role in causing her breast cancer. The judge put the punitive damages phase of the trial on hold, but yesterday the jury convened for 25 minutes and agreed that Pfizer must pay punitive damages to Connie Barton. Punitive damages are imposed on a Defendant who acts in circumstances of “violence, oppression, malice, fraud, or wanton and wicked conduct” according to Black’s Law Dictionary. And the reports of the trial show that the jury had ample proof of that conduct.

Unfortunately, we won’t know what the punitive damage award is, at least until the conclusion of another hormone therapy trial that is continuing in the same courthouse (Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). But it must be a good one—Pfizer’s lawyer said that “We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict.”
Congratulations, Ms. Barton. You deserve every penny and more.