Wyeth found legally liable for breast cancer cases

Wyeth has been ordered to pay $134.5 million as the result of a lawsuit filed recently by three women in Nevada who believe the pharma giant's hormone replacement therapy drug caused them to develop breast cancer.

This is now Wyeth's largest product liability amount, and the company faces another 5,300 lawsuits in courts across the country. Ahh, the joys of being a large, national pharmaceutical giant these days.

A law professor at Seton Hall believes the jury may have taken the plaintiff's version of the story verbatim while not taking in Wyeth's version all that much. Could that be the result of so much bad publicity in recent years when it comes to negative side effects of prescription drugs? Perhaps.