Court Awards over $13M in Premarin Lawsuit
Litigation - Article Series: from All-Creatures.org Articles Archive

FROM

Tuesday's Horse
May 2015

A large portion of that settlement, about 43 per cent, will go to legal counsel for the plaintiffs in the class action suit. The approximately 1,100 plaintiffs themselves will split what’s remaining based on medical costs incurred to date and the ability to prove they took the hormone replacement drug Premarin or Premplus between 1977 and 2003.

What this article does not mention is that Premarin and its sister drugs are made with the urine of pregnant mares. The pharmaceutical industry now commonly refers to the estrogen component in Premarin drugs (including its latest Duavee) as conjugated estrogens conveniently omitting equine which indicates the true identity and alarming nature of these products. There is a hint in the name of the drug itself — pregnant mare’s urine.

PMU farm
For more images of the barbarity of "collecting" urine from pregnant mares to produce Premarin, go here.

The class action lawsuit launched by a Sechelt woman against Wyeth Canada Inc. for selling hormone replacement therapy drugs linked to breast cancer is now settled and a $13.65 million payment has been awarded by the B.C. Supreme Court.

A large portion of that settlement, about 43 per cent, will go to legal counsel for the plaintiffs in the class action suit. The approximately 1,100 plaintiffs themselves will split what’s remaining based on medical costs incurred to date and the ability to prove they took the hormone replacement drug Premarin or Premplus between 1977 and 2003.

Sechelt resident Dianna Stanway, who launched the class action suit, said this week that while the payout may be minimal in the end for the many women involved, she was “satisfied with whatever they can get us.”

“As long as everybody knows it can cause cancer. That was the main object of the court case, because people didn’t know it did at the time but now they do,” Stanway said.

“I’m quite pleased with the outcome of it all.”

Stanway started the class action suit in 2004 after taking the drug Premarin and subsequently being diagnosed with ductal and lobular breast cancer. Continue reading »

What this article does not mention is that Premarin and its sister drugs are made with the urine of pregnant mares.

The pharmaceutical industry now commonly refers to the estrogen component in Premarin drugs (including its latest Duavee) as conjugated estrogens conveniently omitting equine which indicates the true identity and alarming nature of these products. There is a hint in the name of the drug itself — pregnant mare’s urine.

The $13M payout is chump change to pharma giant Pfizer, who acquired Wyeth in a merger in 2009 and continues to make billions of dollars from the sales of these types of products.

And all those commercials you see for Premarin cream? Yessiree. Same drug. Same company. Same conjugated equine estrogens. Same horror for the horses.

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