hot flashes

Big Pharma Writes Script For Menopause Research

Science and Politics post by Sarah Mirk, Submitted by Sarah Mirk on August 5, 2009 - 3:42pm; tagged cancer, hormone replacement therapy, hormone research, hot flash fan, hot flashes, menopause, menopause research, menopause treatment, Premarin, Prempro, Wyeth.

How did hormone replacement therapy become so popular for American women going through menopause? Well, it turns out that pharmaceutical giant Wyeth helped write many of the supportive scholarly articles about its own hormone replacement drugs. The New York Times revealed this morning that the manufacturer of drugs like Premarin and Prempro paid ghostwriters to pen research articles about the hormone replacing drugs, which were then signed off on by a doctor and printed in reputable places like The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Sales of Wyeth's female hormone replacing drugs have fallen by 50 percent since 2001, when a Women's Health Initiative study linked menopausal hormone treatment to an increased risk of cancer. But before that damning study, the company sold more than $2 billion worth of hormone drugs to thousands of American women.