Despite a plaintiff’s argument that upholding the dismissal of the first hormone replacement therapy tort case to reach Pennsylvania’s highest court conflicts with succeeding case law in Pennsylvania’s HRT litigation, the state Supreme Court is leaving intact a judgment notwithstanding the verdict in favor of drugmaker Wyeth.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has asked the Nevada Supreme Court for a new trial over its hormone replacement drugs, arguing Monday that a Reno jury wasn’t properly instructed on punitive damages before awarding three women a multimillion-dollar judgment on claims the drugs caused their breast cancer. The lawyer representing the pharmaceutical giant, since acquired by Pfizer, said the jury’s “premature” deliberation of punitive damages and comments about Wyeth executives’ salaries made by the women’s attorneys prejudiced jurors.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined to hear the first hormone replacement therapy tort case to reach the state’s highest court, leaving intact a judgment notwithstanding the verdict in favor of drugmaker Wyeth that wiped out a $3 million jury award for the plaintiff in 2007.

In Pennsylvania’s first precedent-setting decision regarding mass tort litigation involving hormone replacement therapy, the Superior Court has revived a plaintiff’s lawsuit by finding that the plaintiff was entitled to an exception to the two-year statute of limitations because she couldn’t have reasonably known of an alleged link between her breast cancer and HRT drugs before the publication of a widely publicized study. The case is one of about 1,500 HRT cases filed in Philadelphia courts.