PORTLAND, Ore. — Attorney Mike Williams announced March 11 a lawsuit filed by
Sharron Selman, Joan Tope and Linda Narz, who want doctors to stop prescribing
the hormone replacement drug Prempro and its active ingredients. At the same
time, they want doctors to start informing patients about a safe
alternative.
Tope, of Vancouver, Wash., and Selman and Narz, of the Portland area, have
each been diagnosed with *** cancer. Their diagnoses came after following
their doctors’ prescriptions for synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
The prescriptions were made to relieve hot flashes and other symptoms of
menopause.
“My doctor never told me there was a safe alternative to the drug he
prescribed,” said Narz. “I would have never taken Prempro if I had known it was
so likely to give me cancer while there was a much safer but equally effective
and FDA-approved alternative.”
The women say the safe alternative is a natural hormone drug called
Prometrium, an oral micronized progesterone that is chemically identical to the
native, natural human hormone progesterone. It is FDA approved and has been on
the market since the 1990s.
At a news conference, a lawsuit was announced against the doctors who
prescribed the drugs and against the manufacturers who put the drugs on the
market. Two of the plaintiffs, Narz and Selman, attended the news conference and
expressed hope the legal action would spur doctors to stop using Prempro and
similar drugs.
Narz and Selman said their doctors told them Prempro constituted a risk for
cancer but they felt the risk was slight or remote. Since their diagnoses, they
said they’ve learned Prempro presents a high risk for *** cancer and a safe
alternative exists.
The women were joined by their attorney, Williams, senior partner at the
Portland law firm of Williams Love O’Leary & Powers. Williams reminded
reporters he held a news conference with *** cancer survivors three years
ago, in February 2007. The message then was the same but Prempro continued to be
prescribed and thousands more users have since been diagnosed with *** cancer
caused by the drug.
“If Prempro had been off the market starting in 2007,” Williams said, “these
three women, and thousands of others, would very likely not have developed
*** cancer.” Williams added that another effective tactic would have been for
doctors to be more honest and direct about the alarming rate at which the drug
causes cancer.
The lawsuit (No. 1002-02718) was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, a
state court. In the past, a majority of *** cancer survivors filed their
claims only against the manufacturers and only in federal court. Those cases
have proceeded slowly. Williams said he believes that bringing claims in the
Oregon state court and adding prescribing doctors as defendants will speed up
justice for the women and bring greater pressure to get Prempro and similar
artificial hormones off the market. Wyeth contends that it is the job of the
prescribing doctors, not the drug companies, to inform the women about safer
alternatives. The lawsuit contends that doctors turned a blind eye to the risks
posed to women by the artificial hormone drugs, minimizing *** cancer and
other risks without informing their patients about the safe, natural
alternatives.
Named in the lawsuits are area doctors Miles Seeley, Douglas Eubanks,
Harpreet Daisy Dhillon, Paula J. Spencer and Steven Lisook; clinics Women’s
Healthcare Associates, Columbia View Medical Center and Valley View Medical
Clinic; and pharmaceutical companies Wyeth and Pfizer Inc. Wyeth had been the
manufacturer of Prempro until 2009, when the drug company was purchased by
Pfizer.
Narz was diagnosed with *** cancer in March 2009. Selman found out she had
the cancer in May 2009 and Tope was diagnosed in February 2008. Substantial
evidence that oral micronized progesterone is safer than Prempro has been
published in medical literature since 2005, according to Williams.