NEW BRUNSWICK — Wyeth, the biggest U.S. maker of birth-control pills, settled on the eve of trial a lawsuit by a terminally ill woman who blamed the company’s Prempro menopause drug for her breast cancer.
Superior Court Judge Bryan Garruto approved the settlement Monday, hours before a trial was scheduled to begin in the case of Ellen Deutsch. Terms of the agreement are confidential, Wyeth spokesman Chris Garland said in an e-mailed statement.
The case involving the menopause drugs was the third slated for trial that subsequently settled.
The hormone-therapy drugs came under fire after a 2002 study found that users had an increased rate of breast cancer.
