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Wyeth


Self Description

August 2002: "Wyeth is a research-based, global pharmaceutical company responsible for the discovery and development of some of today's most innovative medicines. Our products are sold in more than 140 countries, and our product portfolio includes innovative treatments across a wide range of therapeutic areas. Our worldwide resources include more than 52,000 employees, manufacturing facilities on five continents, and a discovery and development platform encompassing pharmaceuticals, vaccines and biotechnology." http://www.wyeth.com/about/index.asp

Third-Party Descriptions

March 2012: "She sued Wyeth and a Vermont jury awarded her $6.8 million. Wyeth appealed and the Supreme Court sided with Ms. Levine, agreeing that the company could be held liable for failing to adequately warn about the risks of a drug."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/21/business/drug-lawsuits-hinge-on-the-detail-of-a-label.html

August 2009: "The articles, published in medical journals between 1998 and 2005, emphasized the benefits and de-emphasized the risks of taking hormones to protect against maladies like aging skin, heart disease and dementia. That supposed medical consensus benefited Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company that paid a medical communications firm to draft the papers, as sales of its hormone drugs, called Premarin and Prempro, soared to nearly $2 billion in 2001."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/health/research/05ghost.html

September 2008: "In November, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether Ms. Levine may keep more than $6 million that a Vermont jury ordered Wyeth, a pharmaceutical company, to pay her for failing to warn her adequately about the risks of one of its drugs. The case, the latest in a brisk parade of similar ones, will help define the contours of a signature project of the Roberts court."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/us/19scotus.html

May 2006: Victoria Hampshire, the agency official at the center of the ProHeart 6 controversy, was taken off the case and later became a whistle-blower. Her difficulties were documented on the Senate floor last winter by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). Wyeth maintains that it simply gave the FDA potentially troubling information it found on a Web site about a possible conflict of interest involving Hampshire. The agency cleared her after an investigation, and ProHeart 6 remains off the market.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/11/AR2006051101883.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Status/Name Change from American Cyanamid Organization Mar 30, 2005
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) American Home Products Corporation Organization Sep 24, 2003
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Opponent (past or present) Dr. Victoria Hampshire DVM Person May 12, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Dr. Peter Rost M.D. Person Jun 6, 2007
Financial Supporter of (past or present) Kathleen Turner Person

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Mar 20, 2012 Generic Drugs Proving Resistant to Damage Suits

QUOTE: Across the country, dozens of lawsuits against generic pharmaceutical companies are being dismissed because of a Supreme Court decision last year that said the companies did not have control over what their labels said and therefore could not be sued for failing to alert patients about the risks of taking their drugs. Now, what once seemed like a trivial detail — whether to take a generic or brand-name drug — has become the deciding factor in whether a patient can seek legal recourse from a drug company.

 New York Times
Aug 18, 2009 Senator Moves to Block Medical Ghostwriting

QUOTE: A growing body of evidence suggests that doctors at some of the nation’s top medical schools have been attaching their names and lending their reputations to scientific papers that were drafted by ghostwriters working for drug companies...

 New York Times
Aug 04, 2009 Medical Papers by Ghostwriters Pushed Therapy

QUOTE: Newly unveiled court documents show that ghostwriters paid by a pharmaceutical company played a major role in producing 26 scientific papers backing the use of hormone replacement therapy in women, suggesting that the level of hidden industry influence on medical literature is broader than previously known.

 New York Times
Aug 01, 2009 Adaptive Evolution: A once-rare type of clinical trial that violates one of the sacred tenets of trial design is taking off, but is it worth the risk?

QUOTE: in an increasingly common approach, a trial can be altered in various ways while it’s still in progress... Such modifications are based on a peek at interim data—which of necessity means unblinding the data before the trial’s completion.

 Scientist, The (TS)
Sep 19, 2008 Drug Label, Maimed Patient and Crucial Test for Justices

QUOTE: In legal jargon, the cases concern “pre-emption,” a doctrine that can bar injured consumers like Ms. Levine from suing in state court when the products that hurt them had met federal standards. The issue is less boring and more consequential than it sounds, and Ms. Levine’s case is shaping up to be the most important business case of the term.

 New York Times
Jan 17, 2008 Antidepressant Studies Unpublished

QUOTE: The makers of antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil never published the results of about a third of the drug trials that they conducted to win government approval, misleading doctors and consumers about the drugs’ true effectiveness, a new analysis has found.

 New York Times
Jun 26, 2006 Fight brews over natural vs. synthetic hormone treatments

QUOTE: The complaint filed by Wyeth, a global pharmaceutical company, demands that the FDA regulate bioidentical hormones...a Wyeth spokeswoman, said the company doesn't oppose compounded hormones but contends that some providers make false claims about their safety and fail to individualize prescriptions...Compounders charge that implementing Wyeth's demands would remove bioidenticals from the market and narrow women's choices.

 Arizona Republic
May 12, 2006 Vioxx Debate Echoed in Battle Over Dog Drugs

QUOTE: ...formal -- but by many accounts ineffective -- government and industry efforts to warn veterinarians and dog owners of the drugs' risks. In 1999, 300 pet owners filed a lawsuit against Pfizer Inc., alleging that its early dog arthritis medicine Rimadyl had seriously harmed their pets.

 Washington Post
Apr 23, 2006 Whistle-Stop Campaigns: Some Firms Are Trying to Limit Protection Of Workers Who Expose Wrongdoing

QUOTE: the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act...included sweeping provisions to encourage employees to blow the whistle on corporate wrongdoing...Now those provisions are being tested, with attempts underway to narrow the scope of the act. This is troubling to the bill's supporters, who view whistle-blowers as a first line of defense for investors, fellow employees, retirees and ultimately the public at large...

 Washington Post
Jun 06, 2005 Some drug prices go up after rivals leave market

QUOTE: "Prices of some prescription drugs rose sharply after rivals left the market recently, but drugmakers say there's no connection."

 USA TODAY
Sep 10, 2004 FDA Urged Withholding Data on Antidepressants: Makers Were Dissuaded From Labeling Drugs as Ineffective in Children

QUOTE: he Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly urged antidepressant manufacturers not to disclose to physicians and the public that some clinical trials of the medications in children found the drugs were no better than sugar pills...

 Washington Post
Jul 29, 2004 Whistle-blowers form a breed apart

QUOTE: With or without the backing of the federal government, some people can't imagine keeping quiet when they witness what they believe is wrongdoing.

 USA TODAY
Mar 18, 2003 Case Against Hormones Grows: Women in Study Saw Few Benefits From Therapy

QUOTE: ...new findings show that "hormone manufacturers have been skillfully and effectively skirting drug promotion restrictions for decades..."

 Washington Post
Aug 11, 2002 Heartfelt Advice, Hefty Fees

QUOTE: In the last year or so, dozens of celebrities, from Ms. Bacall to Kathleen Turner to Rob Lowe, have been paid hefty fees to appear on television talk shows and morning news programs and to disclose intimate details of ailments that afflict them or people close to them. Often, they mention brand-name drugs without disclosing their financial ties to the medicine's maker.

 New York Times
Jan 18, 2002 Drug Firms Still Lavish Pricey Gifts On Doctors: Ethics Debated As Freebies Flow

QUOTE: Drugmakers have been wining and dining physicians for years, and the practice has been controversial enough to prompt periodic reviews by Congress and the American Medical Association.

 Washington Post