The drugmaker scored another Prempro victory, this time in Little Rock, Arkansas, where a nine-woman, three-man federal jury decided its hormone replacement therapy wasn’t responsible for causing Helene Rush to develop breast cancer.

And it took them only one day to decide. They obviously didn’t swallow the line given them in closing arguments yesterday by Rush’s lawyer, Kathleen Peterson, who compared the drugmaker to a squid that squirts ink to cloud the water and confuse an enemy.

“Wyeth seeks to be the squid in this case,” she said. “Do not let them.”

Ah, but they did. Or maybe they thought Rush probably would’ve developed breast cancer anyway, which is what Wyeth’s lawyers argued, given Rush’s genetic and health factors, such as weight gain and a history of smoking.

This line of reasoning, in fact, is a linchpin of Wyeth’s Prempro defense. With some 5,000 lawsuits queued up - only a few have been decided without yielding a clear trend - you can be sure the company’s lawyers will bring jugs of squid ink to court. Although that will, no doubt, add quite a bit to Wyeth’s legal bill - the stuff can cost about $4.80 an ounce at gourmet food stores.

(Hat tip to Pharmagossip)

[tags]Prempro, Wyeth[/tags]