Family Awarded $15 Million In Lawsuit on Immunization

My Mother-In-Law pointed me to this article
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE2DA173AF93BA25753C1A961948260


LEAD: The manufacturer of a vaccine used to immunize millions of children against diphtheria and two other diseases has been ordered to pay $15 million to the family of an 8-year-old girl who suffered permanent brain damage attributed to the serum.
The manufacturer of a vaccine used to immunize millions of children against diphtheria and two other diseases has been ordered to pay $15 million to the family of an 8-year-old girl who suffered permanent brain damage attributed to the serum.
Wyeth Laboratories, a Philadelphia company that is a division of the American Home Products Corporation, produced the vaccine used to immunize the girl, Michelle Graham of Beloit, Kan. Her family contended in a two-month Federal trial that the vaccine was defective and unsafe.
In reaching its verdict Wednesday, the seven-member jury rejected Wyeth's assertion that the child suffered a stroke before inoculation with the vaccine, which is used to prevent diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus.
Lawyers for the girl's family presented evidence that the she suffered severe damage to the right side of her brain when she had a reaction to an injection of the vaccine in 1980.
Attorneys for Wyeth declined to comment after the verdict.

Seems this is not the first time this company has been in trouble....
http://www.beasleyallen.com/news/Plaintiffs-Win-Hormone-Therapy-Lawsuit
Plaintiffs Win Hormone Therapy Lawsuitby -->
Published November 27, 2007 12:41 PM

In the trial of the latest Nevada state court hormone therapy case, the jury found against Wyeth on all of plaintiffs' claims and returned a verdict ordering Wyeth to pay a total of $35 million in compensatory damages and $99 million in punitive damages.
The jury found that Wyeth was negligent, Premarin and Prempro were defective, Wyeth concealed material facts about these products, and Wyeth acted with malice or fraud. The punitive damages award came in the second phase of the trial. The jury had found Wyeth's conduct to be "reprehensible," which led to the second phase of the trial and the awarding of punitive damages.
The three women alleged that the use of Premarin and Prempro had contributed to the development of their breast cancer, Wyeth had failed to properly warn about and concealed the risks of the drugs and Wyeth had sold a defective product.
During the trial, Wyeth argued that each of the women had other risk factors that contributed to the development of their cancer and that it provided adequate warnings. Wyeth also contended the company clearly warned users that there was a slightly increased risk of breast cancer from taking Prempro, which was first marketed in 1995.
This is the seventh hormone therapy case to go to a jury. There are still about 5,300 similar lawsuits around the country in state and federal courts. The verdict is the largest award to date against the Madison, New Jersey-based company.
All of the pending cases involve the drugs Premarin, an estrogen replacement, and Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin. As you know, these drugs are prescribed to women to ease symptoms of menopause. There is no telling how many women were hurt by Wyeth's conduct in this matter. Putting corporate profits over the health and welfare of these women is bad by any standard and can't be tolerated.
Sources: Wall Street Journal; New York Times