Word: ayerst
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...doesn?t look good for the drug's makers. The lawyers for Debbie Lovett, 36, sounded like they?d watched a tobacco trial or two in their time. They claimed that Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, a subsidiary of American Home Products, knew the dangers of fen-phen?s dangerous half, fenfluramine, long before the FDA yanked it off the market in May 1997 -- and hid their research from an unsuspecting public. Which left the defense spluttering that Ms. Lovett?s obesity carried its own risks; she knew what she was getting into. The jury didn...
SLEEP ALL NIGHT The ability to sleep soundly decreases with age. Sonata, which American Home Product's pharmaceutical unit Wyeth-Ayerst hopes to launch next year, is designed to induce sleep without producing a groggy feeling the next morning. "There is a tremendous issue in sleep disturbance," says consultant Coleman. "So when we get a product that people have utter confidence in, that will be a gold mine for someone...
These were not the first lethal side effects associated with Redux and fenfluramine. When Redux was approved, both Wyeth-Ayerst and the FDA already knew that the medication could lead to a potentially fatal lung condition known as primary pulmonary hypertension. But this problem seemed to affect only a small minority of users, and morbid obesity carries significant risks of its own: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke. On balance, the benefits seemed to outweigh the risks...
...boosts the metabolism to burn calories faster. Wurtman separated fenfluramine into its two component chemicals, levofenfluramine and dexfenfluramine. The latter has revealed itself to be a powerful weight-loss medication. He patented the drug for M.I.T., founded a company called Interneuron Pharmaceuticals to manufacture it under license to Wyeth-Ayerst and began moving the drug, dubbed Redux, through the FDA-approval process...
Much of this legal furor is being vented against Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, a subsidiary of American Home Products, which makes fenfluramine and distributes dexfenfluramine, and Interneuron Pharmaceuticals, a small Lexington, Mass., firm founded by the M.I.T. neurologist who developed Redux. There's also talk of bringing action against the FDA--though federal law usually protects government officials from suits challenging routine performance of duties like approving drugs. Whatever the outcome of the legal battles, they leave unsettled larger societal questions--about Americans' infatuation with quick-fix remedies for whatever ails them, real or imagined, and their doctors' willingness to cater...