Word: upjohn
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SENTENCED. Roger Gauntlett, 41, an heir to the Upjohn pharmaceutical fortune, who had pleaded no contest to a charge of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter, 14; to a year in jail and five years of "chemical castration" with Depo-Provera, which decreases the male sex drive and is manufactured by Upjohn; in Kalamazoo, Mich. With the drug, said Circuit Court Judge Robert Borsos, "it is now possible to castrate a man and at a future time reverse the effects." Both sides plan to appeal...
...Upjohn Research Manager Gordon Duncan believes that the side effects of Depo-Provera are not serious enough to "preclude its use as a contraceptive." Would he feel the same way if it were a male contraceptive that caused weight gain and a loss of sex drive, as well as the male equivalent of "complete cessation of menstrual bleeding...
...Upjohn has been haunted, however, by its own early tests of Depo-Provera in animals. In a seven-year, controlled study using beagles, two out of 16 dogs developed breast cancer. Results from a ten-year study using 52 rhesus monkeys were equally alarming: two of the animals developed cancer of the endometrium (the lining of the uterus). Upjohn's own scientists concluded in 1978 that the cancer was "likely related to treatment with Depo-Provera." Later that year the FDA refused to allow Upjohn to market the drug as a contraceptive, though it is approved for treating certain...
Since then, Upjohn has challenged the validity of its own tests. According to company scientists and a number of outside experts, both beagles and rhesus monkeys are highly sensitive to progesterone and are more likely than humans to develop cancer in response to it. Depo-Provera partisans further claim that there has been no increase in the rate of cancer among women taking the drug in countries where it is approved. Says Gynecologist Elizabeth Connell of Atlanta's Emory University: "It appears to be as safe or perhaps safer than oral contraceptives or intrauterine devices...
...Advocate Ralph Nader's Health Research Group and the National Women's Health Network. The latter group has collected about 150 case histories of women who claim to have suffered ill effects from taking Depo-Provera and, according to Director Belita Cowan, it has plans to sue Upjohn...