Actually, it’s really Pfizer now, isn’t it? In any event, the drug maker doesn’t have to pay more than $27 million in punitive damages to an Arkansas woman who blamed her breast cancer on the company’s Prempro and Premarin menopause drugs, according to an appeals court ruling (here it is).

The US Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld a jury’s March 2008 finding that the hormone-replacement drugs helped cause Donna Scroggin’s cancer and $2.75 million in compensatory damages, Bloomberg writes. But the three-judge panel also backed a judge’s decision to throw out the punitive award to Scroggin, who alleged two Pfizer units ignored or downplayed the risks of the drugs.

It was the first review by an appeals court of a verdict favoring plaintiffs in a Prempro case, said Jim Morris, one of Scroggin’s lawyers. “Finally, we have an appellate court who has found it’s reasonable to conclude that Prempro causes breast cancer,” Morris tells Bloomberg. “This jury could come back with $100 million for us this time. We don’t see this as a loss at all.”

Scroggin was among 6 million women who took the pills to treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats and mood swings. Pfizer’s Wyeth unit faces more than 9,000 lawsuits over its menopause drugs.