Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. acknowledged it faces huge settlements for hormone-replacement therapy drugs. The company said in an SEC filing that it has put aside $772 million to resolve claims. Experts expect the amount to be much higher, and so does Pfizer. The company wrote that the amount it put aside is “the minimum expected costs to resolve all of the other outstanding..”.
A third of claims relating to HRT medications have already been settled, the company said.
Pfizer bought pharmaceutical company Wyeth in 2009 and inherited that company’s claims, including PremPro which is prescribed for symptoms linked to the menopause, such as mood swings and hot flashes.
Over six million women took HRT for menopause symptoms, including Prempro.
Wyeth managed to get 3,000 cases dismissed before they came to trial.
Pfizer has not revealed how many cases are still outstanding. In 2009, before Wyeth was taken over by Pfizer, Wyeth was facing 9,900 pending cases.
Experts see Pfizer’s move as a positive one that will give the company the opportunity to clean up a long-standing litigation so that it can move forward again.
Written by Christian Nordqvist