Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The advertisements no longer blanket magazines or fill television screens, but the message cannot be deleted. Over the years, millions of women were told that estrogen loss during menopause could be dangerous to their health, contributing to problems such as osteoporosis, heart disease, colon cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, tooth loss and blindness. It could also cause uncomfortable symptoms such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness and mood swings. The ads said menopause was a nasty disease that could be eliminated by just taking a once-daily pill, a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that would help women feel like women again.

Read the rest of this entry »

The message was heard loud and clear – powerful drug companies that make billions from products they know pose a significant risk of life-threatening health consequences to the people who take them, owe their victims. Big time.

This week, Pfizer, which recently acquired Wyeth, the makers of the hormone replacement therapies (HRT) Prempro and Premarin, were hit with more than $100 million in two punitive-damage awards from Philadelphia juries. The two plaintiffs, Connie Barton and Donna Kendall, claimed the drugs caused their breast cancer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Drug maker Wyeth paid ghostwriters to write articles for medical journals that were favorable to the company’s hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Prempro , even after the drug was found to raise a woman’s risk for breast cancer and other serious health concerns, according to newly unveiled court documents. Medical journals such as The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and The International Journal of Cardiology name doctors as authors of articles that typically involve heavily research topics and offer a judgment on how to treat a particular condition. It is believed that doctors are often swayed by those published opinions and may be influenced by them when prescribing medication to their patients.

Read the rest of this entry »

Use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) among postmenopausal women has been linked to a sharply increased risk of ovarian cancer, according to a study conducted by a team of researchers in Denmark. The study included data from 900,000 Danish women ages 50 to 79 over eight years and found 140 extra cases of ovarian cancer – or a 38 percent greater risk of contracting the disease compared to women who did not use HRT.

Read the rest of this entry »

Women who took Wyeth’s hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Prempro at least five years are at greater risk of dying from non-small cell lung cancer, according to a recent study presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.

Read the rest of this entry »

A new study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests a sudden decrease in breast cancer in several countries worldwide is likely linked to the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) finding that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after menopause can dramatically increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer and other serious health problems, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Read the rest of this entry »

A federal study revealed that the pharmaceutical company Wyeth paid ghostwriters to write articles for medical journals that were favorable to the drug company’s hormone replacement therapy (HRT) Prempro, even after the drug was found to raise a woman’s risk for breast cancer, according to the New York Times.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the 1960s, a New York gynecologist wrote a book called “Feminine Forever,” in which he recommended estrogen for menopause, stating that women on the hormone replacement drug “will be much more pleasant to live with and will not become dull and unattractive.”

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals caught wind of the book and its author’s claims that estrogen reduced a woman’s risk for both breast and genital cancers, and began distributing the book to physicians across the country. Soon after, sales of Wyeth’s HRT drug Premarin took off, growing to more than 30 million prescriptions each year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nevada’s attorney general is suing drug makers Wyeth and Pfizer for alleged deceptive trade practices and misleading the public about the safety of its hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, according to RGJ.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals recently announced FDA approval of its Premarin Vaginal Cream to treat moderate to severe dyspareunia, or painful sexual intercourse, according to RTT News.

Read the rest of this entry »