This latest case involves Ellen Deutsch, who took the hormone replacement therapy - and its predecessor, Premarin - for a total of seven years and was eventually diagnosed with breast cancer. Deutsch, who lives in Livingston, NJ, a New York suburb, was 55 at the time she was diagnosed.

As with the handful of previous cases, which have resulted in a mixed bag for Wyeth, Deutsch’s lawyers will argue that the drugmaker spent decades actively promoting hormone replacement therapy as a desirable, life-long menopausal treatment, but failed to sufficiently study the meds and, later, backpedaled on its claims before a government-funded study linked the drugs to cancer and heart risks.

You can read the background here and here

The proceedings get under way today before Court Judge Bryan Garruto, who oversees about 200 Prempro cases and last month tossed aside Wyeth’s argument that an FDA rule pre-empts the right to file a product liability lawsuit. Previous Prempro cases took place in Pennsylvania state court in Philadelphia and federal court in Little Rock, Arkansas.