Legal Funding for Prempro Settlements

Prempro settlements are taking a long time to materialize. To convert your settled Prempro cases into immediate cash, attorneys or plaintiffs are urged to contact RD Legal Funding about their Fee Acceleration post-settlement funding program. Fill out the short application to the right to qualify for a free consultation with a legal funding specialist. Or, call 1-800-565-5177 to speak with a Fee Acceleration expert today.

About Prempro

Wyeth introduced the Hormone Female Therapy (HRT) drug Premarin, composed of conjugated equine estrogen derived from the urine of pregnant female horses, in 1942. The drug was aggressively marketed for the treatment of menopause and menopausal symptoms.

When the New England Journal of Medicine published studies in 1975 and 1976 linking estrogen use by menopausal women to endometrial cancer, progestogen (a synthetic form of progesterone) was added to estrogen. Through the 70’s and 80’s, multi-million dollar ad campaigns promised that HRT made women healthy, happy, and beautiful. Doctors prescribed it to reduce heart disease and aging symptoms including wrinkles, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and osteoporosis.

Studies published in 1988 showed that HRT did not reduce the rate of heart disease in postmenopausal women with established coronary disease – instead, it increased the rate of blood clots, stroke, and gallbladder disease. Drug companies countered that the results did not apply to healthy women. 

In the 90's, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Wyeth’s new drug Prempro, a combination of Premarin and Provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate, a powerful synthetic progesterone) without a randomized clinical trial. Nonetheless, Wyeth touted Prempro as “a well-studied, safe regimen," spending millions of dollars on promotions through ads, celebrity sponsorships, and ghost-written articles placed in medical journals. Prempro became the most prescribed drug in the Unites States with sales reaching $2 billion a year in 2001. Negative scientific evidence began piling up:

• In 2002, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) reports that Prempro increased the incidence of breast cancer by 26 percent, heart attack by 29 percent, stroke by 41 percent, and blood clots in the legs and veins by 105 percent. The FDA ordered the addition of black-box warnings.
   
• 2003: the NIH reports that women 65 and older taking Prempro have increased risks of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
   
• 2008: the NIH reports that women who stopped taking hormones in 2002 were 27 percent more likely to develop breast cancer and had a 24 percent increased risk in developing any form of cancer over women who never took hormones.

Some ten thousand lawsuits were lodged against Wyeth (which Pfizer purchased in 2009), claiming the company oversold the benefits of Prempro while failing to warn of the risks. After the courts found Pfizer and Wyeth guilty of “wanton and reckless” behavior, they settled some 6,000 suits for $896 million and set aside $330 million to settle 4,000 remaining suits.

RD Legal is Ready to Accelerate Your Prempro Settlement

RD Legal Funding is positioned to provide attorney fee financing and plaintiff funding to those with slow-paying Prempro settlements. To start accelerating your legal fees today, please fill out the brief online application located at the upper right corner of this page. Or you can call RD Legal toll-free at 1-800-565-5177 to speak with one of our legal finance experts.