The punitive damages will go to an Illinois woman, Connie Barton, who developed cancer after taking Prempro, Bloomberg reports, although the amount was sealed last week by a Pennsyvlania state court judge until another trial begins. A jury also awarded her $3.7 million in compensatory damages after finding the conduct of Pfizer’s Wyeth was “willful and wanton” in marketing and selling the drug.

Barton’s lawyers presented evidence during the trial about Wyeth efforts to “deflect” criticism of its handling of the drug and its use of ghostwritten articles in medical journals to market Prempro. They also alleged execs hid Prempro’s cancer risks to pump up the drug’s sales, Bloomberg writes.

Annual sales of Wyeth’s hormone-replacement drugs topped $2 billion before the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, suggested women using the medicines had a higher breast-cancer risk.

Barton’s award of about $75 million is the third surviving verdict in Prempro cases since juries began deciding them in 2006. The largest was handed down to three women who blamed the drugs for their breast cancers in 2007. A federal appeals court this week ordered a new trial on punitive damages for an Arkansas woman, who claims Wyeth’s mishandling of Prempro caused her breast cancer.

Barton, a retired records clerk from Peoria, Illinois, took Prempro for five years before developing breast cancer in 2002. The panel’s decision to punish Wyeth with a punitive verdict 20 times greater than the compensatory damages it awarded Barton, 64, makes the verdict a target for an appeal, said Michael Allen, a Stetson University law professor who has written articles on punitive damages.

“This is an award that is clearly marked for trouble,” Allen tells Bloomberg. “The US Supreme Court has said a punitive award that exceeds the single digits in comparison to the actual damages could be excessive.” A Pfizer spokesman says the drugmaker plans to appeal.

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