A major drug manufacturer has settled a lawsuit brought by four women who claim their breast cancer was caused by a drug containing a synthetic estrogen taken by their mother during pregnancy in the 1950s.
The Associated Press is reporting that pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company has agreed to settle with the four Melnick sisters who claim that a drug named diethylstilbestrol or DES, prescribed to millions of pregnant women to prevent miscarriages, premature births, and other complications, caused them to contract breast cancer.
Attorney Aaron Levine, who represented the women, told the jury during opening statements in the trial that Eli Lilly failed to test the drug’s effect on fetuses before promoting it as a way to prevent miscarriages. The drug was pulled off the market in the early 1970’s after it was linked to a rare vaginal cancer in women whose mothers had taken the drug.
James Dillon, who is representing Eli Lilly, claims there is no evidence that the mother of the Melnicks took DES or, if she did, that it was made by Eli Lilly. DES was not patented and was made by many different companies at the time. He also said that there is no evidence that the drug caused the cancer in the four women who were all diagnosed with breast cancer in their 40’s.
A fifth sister did not develop the cancer because her mother did not take DES during this particular pregnancy.
Boston attorney Andrew Meyer, who has handled numerous medical malpractice cases, told the AP that the settlement is significant.
“When one settles a case, they recognize they can lose it,” he said. “The reason they can lose it is because there’s enough evidence for the plaintiffs to be able to win it. So it’s not just optics, it isn’t.”
Another breast cancer survivor who is also suing Eli Lilly over the drug, called the settlement a “huge victory” for “DES daughters.”
“The bottom line is that this company put out a drug without testing, without knowing the consequences of this drug,” she said.
The Melnick case was the first to go to trial. A total of 51 women, including the Melnick sisters, have filed lawsuits in Boston against more than a dozen companies that made or marketed DES.
Thousands of other cases alleging a link between DES and vaginal and cervical cancer, as well as fertility problems, have already been settled.
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