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Even to a nation grown accustomed to multibillion-dollar business frauds, the allegations are shocking. A Scottish psychiatrist has charged Upjohn of Kalamazoo, Mich., with falsifying scientific evidence regarding the safety of the sleeping pill Halcion (annual worldwide sales: $240 million). The accusation has prompted a federal investigation. Dow Corning Wright of Arlington, Tenn., stands accused of failing to report that its silicone-gel breast implants were associated with severe side effects -- including the development of autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. That product and similar implants made by other manufacturers have been placed in 1 million...
Last fall, for instance, despite ambiguous evidence, a jury ordered Merrell Dow to pay a Texas couple $33.8 million; they claimed the antinausea drug Bendectin had maimed their child in the womb. And patients around the country are lining up to sue Eli Lilly, alleging that the anti-depressant Prozac induces violent thoughts -- despite FDA findings to the contrary. In some cases, companies decide to settle out of court rather than take their chances with juries. Upjohn, for example, paid an undisclosed sum to a woman who claimed the drug Halcion had driven her to commit murder. Most doctors believe...
...Wolfe just crying wolf? Or has a pervasive corruption -- which the FDA seems powerless to stop -- spread throughout the pharmaceutical and medical- device industries? Upjohn and Dow Corning strenuously deny any wrongdoing.They point out, rightly, that only a small proportion of consumers report problems with their products, and that it is naive to expect perfection in so large and complex a business. In the U.S. alone, there are 3,000 types of drugs on the market and more than 1.5 billion prescriptions written every year. A small number of incidents with a handful of drugs is hardly an indictment...
...silicone breast-implant scandal may, however, change that relationship. Anderson's own trust in the system was shattered on Dec. 12, when he sat down and read scores of Dow Corning documents, including 17 internal memos dating as far back as the mid-1970s, about silicone-gel breast implants. The information surfaced during a liability suit in Michigan. When he finished, Anderson wrote and hand-delivered both the documents and an urgent letter to the FDA demanding that all such implants be promptly removed from the marketplace. "This appeal is not made lightly," Anderson wrote. He noted that Dow Corning...
Drug companies are marshaling their forces to oppose increased government oversight. Those that stand accused are also conducting somewhat belated counteroffensives to limit the legal damage and repair their frayed reputations. Dow Corning, which has been widely criticized for reacting insensitively to the implant debacle, announced that it has retained former Attorney General Griffin Bell to lead an independent investigation into its development and marketing of implants. The company has also agreed to make public 90 additional documents and to ensure that it provides accurate information to the thousands of women calling the company for advice...