Marketing Cited as Potential Cause for Number of Women Suffering from Prempro Cancer

Newburgh, IllinoisA series of court battles related to Wyeth's Prempro HRT have caused much financial woe for the drug maker and its parent company Pfizer. Yet a series of new articles blames misleading advertising for the more than 13,000 claimants seeking damages from the company.

Prempro is a hormone replacement therapy prescribed to treat symptoms associated with the onset of menopause, including hot flashes and night sweats. A federally funded study eventually linked the medication with an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer, heart disease, stroke, lupus and several heart conditions.

According to a report from NPR, critics claim that Wyeth's advertisements overplayed some of the benefits of the medication while minimizing the risks. The article cites a claim that Prempro could help prevent "against mild cognitive impairment" in older women - claims that were found to be false.

"Thousands of doctors prescribed the drugs for millions of women on that basis," Dr. Jerome L. Avorn of Harvard Medical School tells the New York Times. "It will be very interesting to see whether the courts are able to connect the dots and make it clear whether this was a kind of medical ventriloquism on Wyeth's part."