Bloomberg News reports:
Pfizer Inc.’s Prempro, a hormone once used by millions of women to ease menopause symptoms, almost doubled the death risk from breast cancer, a U.S. study found.
The findings from the U.S.-funded Women’s Health Initiative are the first to tie Pfizer’s hormone replacement therapy Prempro, already linked to higher breast cancer and heart disease rates, to increased mortality from tumors.
Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, yesterday won its sixth of 13 jury cases over Prempro’s health risks an hour before the research was reported by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Previous studies suggested tumors fueled by hormone therapy were less aggressive and easier to treat. Pfizer gained Prempro in its $68 billion purchase of Wyeth last year. The hormones had annual sales of more than $2 billion before the study was halted in 2002, leading many women to stop treatment.
“You have more cancers, you have more advanced stage cancers and you aren’t having just more favorable cancers,” lead researcher Rowan Chlebowski, from the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, said in a telephone interview. “Women should think critically about if they need this, if their symptoms are significant and if they would persist.”
ABC News reports:
A federal jury has sided with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in the latest lawsuit that accused the drugmaker of not disclosing a link between its hormone replacement therapy and a higher risk of breast cancer.
A Little Rock jury deliberated briefly Tuesday before siding with Wyeth, which argued that it adequately warned doctors and patients of the risks associated with its Prempro and Premarin drugs.
The case was brought by a woman and her husband, after she developed breast cancer. She had taken Prempro for 4 1/2 years.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11921219
Premarin and Prempro are made from pregnant mare’s urine. Thousands of mares are milked for their urine in tight stalls where they remain on their feet throughout their pregnancy. The cycle of quick re-impregnation continues throughout their shortened lifespans. Taken from the mares when only weeks old, their foals are typically sent to slaughter.
There are alternatives. You can help. Send your physician this Patient to Doctor <a href="letter.
Cross-posted from Tuesday’s Horse >>
