Drugmaker Pfizer is arguing to the state Supreme Court that $8.6 million in punitive damages should not have been awarded in a hormone-replacement therapy case without evidence that its subsidiary misled federal regulators or knew the dangers of the drug were greater than what consumers were warned about.
The Supreme Court granted allocatur in the case of Daniel v. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dec. 5 on one issue: whether punitive damages should have been allowed in a drug products liability case for a drug that was reviewed by the federal Food and Drug Administration. There was no evidence, the defendant says, that it misled the FDA about the risk of the drug by hiding scientific facts and data.
