Word: dowe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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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...
...part of America's beleaguered system for regulating medical products. To be fair, legal action is not only a valuable recourse for patients who have been harmed; it can also expose problems overlooked by regulators. It was lawsuits in Michigan and California -- and aggressive reporting by newspapers -- that revealed Dow Corning Wright's internal memos concerning the risks of silicone- gel implants...
...virtues of the judicial system, the courtroom is not the best place to work out scientific truths. Lawyers pursuing drug-liability suits often depend on a small cadre of "expert witnesses" to help make their case. These hired guns, complains Frank Woodside, a doctor and attorney for Dow Corning Wright, "don't always have qualifications, and prey upon the sympathy of the jurors...
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...