(Philadelphia, PA)  --  Drugmaker Pfizer must pay 103-million dollars in punitive damages to two women who got breast cancer after taking hormones.

   The awards came in two separate jury trials in Philadelphia.

   The latest one ended Monday with a jury awarding $28-million.
   The judge then unsealed the first judgment of $75-million from a month earlier.

   At least 1500 similar lawsuits have been filed in Philadelphia alone against Pfizer, and the total around the country is ten-thousand lawsuits.

   Pfizer has vowed to appeal the two cases, along with two others it lost elsewhere.

   Pfizer owns two companies that produce medicines containing the hormone estrogen that were used by millions of women to ease the symptoms of menopause.

   A 2002 federally funded study found a strong link between hormone therapy and breast cancer.




   (Copyright 2009 by VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions)