What’s a holiday without talking about some real grinches out there? Wyeth might actually be a Scrooge as well. You know, the whole putting profits before people thing that pharmaceutical corporations do.

The 14,000 plaintiffs who took the menopausal hormone therapy (HT) Prempro claim that Wyeth distorted study results and hid evidence of harm. Some patients traded the temporary inconvenience of hot flashes for the permanent inconvenience of death.

It was not as if Wyeth didn’t have reason to suspect serious risk. In 1975, an eight-fold increase in endometrial cancer was linked to estrogen use. To counter this side effect, Wyeth added progesterone and created Prempro. But the new combo not only failed to prevent cardiovascular disease, it increased the risk of breast cancer, stroke, dementia and incontinence, according to the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study.

They crated an entire “disease” out of aging and menopause to sell their wares.

Yes, this ruling actually came from the Roberts Court!

Today, the Supreme Court rejected arguments by the prescription drug industry that having their labels approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be a shield from state law tort liability. In a rousing victory for consumers of prescription drugs, the Supreme Court rendered a decision preserving consumer rights to access the courts when injured physically or financially by prescription drugs.

In the case Wyeth v. Levine, the Court ruled 6 to 3 that the FDA’s approval of a drug label does not preempt consumer’s rights to sue the manufacturer for their failure to warn of knows risks associated with the drug.

Hey there Wyeth! Up yours!

The lawsuit was brought by Diane Levine, a musician from Vermont who while suffering from a migraine was given the anti-nausea drug Phenergan. Her physician’s assistant did so in a manner that caused the drug to contact her arteries, which caused gangrene and resulted in the loss of her arm. Ms. Levine sued and settled with her doctor. She also sued the drug’s Manufacturer, Wyeth. In its defense, Wyeth argued that the FDA’s approval of the label under federal law preempted Ms. Levine’s rights under state law, but lost. After a 5-day trial, a Vermont jury concluded that the drug maker did not adequately warn of the known risks of gangrene associated with the use of the drug, and awarded Ms. Levine $7.4 million.

After losing in appeals all the way up to Vermont’s Supreme Court, Phenergran’s manufacturer, Wyeth appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court accepted the case, and addressed the issue..

Oh they addressed it alright. Let this be a warning to Phrma your drugs do harm because of your greed. Now you have no shield and will be held accountable.

Pharma: Drug Maker Accused Of Paying Ghostwriters To Pen Journal Articles

A drug company is accused of paying ghostwriters to write favorable articles about their drugs — even after one drug was shown to raise the risk of cancer.

Drug maker Wyeth paid ghostwriters to write medical journal articles that were favorable to its female hormone replacement therapy drug, according to Congressional letters referenced in an article in the NYT.

Besides the health insurance industry the other industry I truly disdain is Big Phrma (why Naomi Judd? why appear on their website?).

Back to Wyeth:

One article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommended a hormone replacement therapy drug that now carries a cancer risk warning. The article claimed that there was “no definitive evidence” that the drug caused breast cancer.

According to the NYT, the documents show that the drug company executives came up with ideas for the articles, titled them, paid writers to write the manuscripts, “recruited academic authors and identified publications to run the articles — all without disclosing the companies’ roles to journal editors or readers.”

This is right in league with the video news releases that have been done. Unfortunatley this news may not be enough to hurt Wyeth’s profits or its stock price but I sure hope it will.

I think that a patient should have the right to sue pharmaceutical corporations for personal injuries stemming from prescription drugs approved by the FDA. If the drug hurts you in any way and it was approved by the FDA I think it’s pretty clear. You’re taking a drug assuming that it’s safe if you follow the labeling correctly. When that proves to be horribly false then you need justice.

The court battle is over whether or not Wyeth Pharmaceuticals sufficiently warned against the dangers of IV push on its packaging for Phenergan — packaging that had been approved by the FDA. The drug’s labeling did warn that it was preferable to give Phenergan through IV drip, and warned that “inadvertent intra-arterial injection” — accidentally injecting the drug into an artery — could cause “gangrene requiring amputation.” But nowhere on the Phenergan label was there an express warning that the method of IV push is extremely risky for this very reason.

Why they (Wyeth) did not clearly state that IV pushing should be prohibited I have no idea. CEO Bernard J. Poussot and gang were reckless.