Court won't stop hormone replacement lawsuits

(AP) -- The Supreme Court won't reconsider a decision to reinstate more than 100 lawsuits filed by women who claimed that hormone replacement therapy caused breast cancer.

The high court refused on Tuesday to hear an appeal from Wyeth LLC and other pharmaceutical companies.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge's decision to throw out many of the lawsuits.

The drug companies wanted the case in federal court, and said plaintiffs added unrelated local defendants to ensure it would stay in state court. A federal judge agreed, and dismissed many of the lawsuits. But the appeal court overturned that ruling, saying that it had not been proven that the women had done anything wrong.

The case is Wyeth LLC v. Kirkland, 10-222.