Jury Selected In DES Lawsuit
BOSTON (CBS) - The jury is in place in the lawsuit pitting women with breast cancer against one of the nation's biggest drug companies.
Four sisters are taking Eli Lilly to court over the drug Diethylstilbestrol. Since we first told you about their case, we've heard from two other women who say the drug affected them too.
Andrea Goldstein is considered a pioneer in the fight against the makers of DES, a drug prescribed from the 1950's to the 70's to prevent miscarriage.
"Anything that put you at a higher risk, you got DES and then there were doctors who gave it as a preventative measure," says Goldstein.
Goldstein's mother took it. She argues that's why she's infertile. She won a court settlement in 1985 with Eli Lilly.
"Certainly people who came after me with infertility claims had an easier time because there was precedent set," she says.
Now there is another wave of lawsuits by the daughters of more women who took DES, this time, at the Boston Federal Courthouse over a frightening pattern of breast cancer. Among more than 50 plaintiffs are the four sisters whose mother took DES.
"I would say to them I'm so sorry for what happened to them, but I'm so hopeful that at least now they'll be vindicated," says Goldstein.
DES was prescribed to women all over the country, but was popular with some Boston doctors, who then influenced their colleagues in the New England area.
