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(Don't) "Break a Leg," Sally Field

By Joe Consumer

?Cows, Mares and Guinea Pigs? is the name of a chapter in the Center for Justice & Democracy?s study, The Bitterest Pill; How Drug Companies Fail To Protect Women And How Lawsuits Save Their Lives.  The chapter deals with post menopausal drugs, which are huge business for the pharmaceutical industry.  I?d like to change the name of that chapter now to "Cows, Mares, Guinea Pigs and Oscar-winning actress Sally Field."  I think it takes an Oscar-caliber performance to go on TV and urge women to buy the latest drug industry gold mine, osteoporosis drugs (like Fosamax, Actonel, Reclast, and Ms. Field?s drug of choice, the incredibly expensive Boniva), without any hint of concern. 

In March, ABC News reported  on ?mounting evidence that, for some women, taking these medications for more than five years could cause spontaneous fractures.?  Femur, or thigh bone, fractures are what doctors are seeing.  "'We are seeing people just walking, walking down the steps, patients who are doing low-energy exercise,' said Dr. Kenneth Egol, professor of orthopedic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center. 'Very unusual, the femur is one of the strongest bones in the body.'"

The news for Ms. Fields is even worse.  Last Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported "WellPoint Inc. (WLP), the largest U.S. managed-care concern by membership, made it harder last year for its members to gain approval for use of the Boniva osteoporosis drug after internal research linked it to higher fracture rates, lower patient compliance and higher total costs of care than two other drugs." 

Back to Fosamax, where the news is worse yet.  On Friday, a jury hit Fosamax manufacturer, Merck, with an $8 million verdit for causing ?jaw death.?  AP reports,

[Shirley Boles, 72] took Merck's Fosamax for about 10 years, from 1997 through 2006, and suffered repeated jaw problems and complications after two tooth extractions in 2002. She was hospitalized for several days in 2004 to treat her condition.

O'Brien said his client's decayed jaw bone drains through sores in her chin and she can only eat soft foods that don't require chewing. A doctor testified her condition has worsened and the great-grandmother will need to have parts of her jawbone cut out and replaced with other bone, said [Timothy] O'Brien, of the Levin, Papantonio law firm.

 O'Brien said his evidence showed that Fosamax provides no benefit in preventing bone fractures for women like Boles, who did not have osteoporosis. She had osteopenia, a condition in which bone density is beginning to decrease, and Fosamax is approved for preventing fractures in such women.

Merck is furious and is appealing.  But now even Canadians are threatening to sue, and they barely have a tort system.

The FDA doesn?t see the problems yet, they say.   I mean, who would want to break the news to America's (former) sweetheart?

Full post as published by ThePopTort on June 28, 2010 (boomark / email).