EDITORIAL Fen-phen case illustrates potential abuses
ACompanies under public scrutiny for
illegal or unethical behavior want to deflect attention elsewhere. Often it
isnt that hard to do, because who really wants to believe the worst.
Better to believe that, in the case of health care above all, no
company would knowingly withhold information from doctors about a harmful
product. Even if they tried, we want to believe, Food and Drug Administration
regulations would protect us.
Furthermore, the media -- treading very carefully these days when
it comes to big companies with deep pockets -- often contributes to confusion
by bending over backward to be fair.
In the case of American Home Products, the pharmaceuticals giant
that marketed the infamous and potentially lethal part of the drug combination
known as fen-phen, attention has been deflected to a fight among
lawyers over settlement of a class action lawsuit, and to the possibility that
medical problems linked to fen-phen are somehow vague or
imagined.
Stay focused and dont be fooled. Big figures will be thrown
around in coming months. Staggering sums are at stake: a potential $3.75
billion class action settlement, and possibly millions more for former drug
users who have opted out of the settlement because they plan to sue the company
individually.
Fortunately, Redux (dexfenfluramine) and its chemical cousin
Pondimin (fenfluramine) have been removed from the market, due to pressure from
the FDA. The other half of the fen-phen combo, phentermine, has not been linked
to medical problems.
Lawyers and sick people seeking huge court awards are easy targets
for companies seeking to justify their actions. Recall, though, that it was
federal health officials, not lawyers, who urged medical checkups for an
estimated 1.2 million to 4.7 million fen-phen users.
Although the company insists that its behavior has been legal,
ethical and proper, evidence brought forth in trials so far makes that claim
extremely questionable.
The pharmaceutical company has been accused of hiding information
from the FDA not only about the extent of heart valve damage linked to side
effects of the drug, but also about the extent of primary pulmonary
hypertension, a potentially fatal disease.
Further, the company paid to have articles written about obesity
treatments -- favorable, naturally, to fen-phen -- and got two published in
peer-reviewed medical journals under names of prominent researchers.
Effectively, these articles, published in the American Journal of Medicine and
Clinical Therapeutics, were advertisements veiled as scholarly research.
Connections between authors and the drug company were not disclosed, though the
medical journals require disclosure.
The place to focus attention and anger is on companies that
manipulate the public trust. The alleged actions of American Home Products and
its subsidiary, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, have devastating implications for
public health and for trust in medical professionals.
National Catholic Reporter, April 14,
2000
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