Prempro Injury Lawsuits Reinstated in Minn. Courts

More than 100 lawsuits filed on behalf of women who blame the hormone replacement drug Prempro and similar medications for causing their breast cancer have been reinstated in a Minnesota state court.

A ruling this week by a federal appeals panel reversed an earlier ruling by an Arkansas federal judge, who had dismissed the lawsuits brought against the makers of Prempro and similar drugs, according to a report in Arkansas News.

Prempro is manufactured by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc., a division of Pfizer Inc, but Barr Laboratories Inc. and Mead Johnson & Co. also are named as defendants in the lawsuits.

The drug companies had the lawsuits transferred to a federal court in Minnesota, arguing that the cases were improperly joined in state court. The cases later were transferred to the federal court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Arkansas News reports.

The plaintiffs sought to have the cases sent back to Minnesota state court, but in December 2008, a federal judge in Arkansas denied those motions and found the lawsuits had been improperly joined. Most of the claims were tossed out of court.

Court Reverses Earlier Dismissal Order

However, a three-judge panel of 8th Circuit this week reversed the judge’s ruling after finding the drug manufacturers had not sufficiently established that the plaintiffs’ claims were “egregiously misjoined.”

“Given the nature of the plaintiffs’ claims, this litigation is likely to contain common questions of law and fact. … One such common question might be the causal link between HRT drugs and breast cancer,” the court said in its opinion, according to the Arkansas News report.

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