BMJ  2003;326:1161 (31 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1161

News

Drug company secretly briefed medical societies on HRT

Washington, DC

Pharmaceutical giant Wyeth has admitted that it secretly briefed a number of medical societies about the results of a study into hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and dementia before they were published this week.

View larger version (28K): [in this window] [in a new window]

 

On Wednesday JAMA published the study, funded by Wyeth, which shows that the company's combined oestrogen and progestogen pill doubled the risk of dementia among elderly women from about 1% to 2% over five years. The latest data on dementia come after findings last year which showed that long term use of the drug slightly increases the risks of breast cancer, heart attacks, and strokes in healthy women aged over 50 years ( JAMA 2002;288: 321-33[Abstract/Free Full Text]).

The company's briefings of outside bodies has caused grave concern in the research community, including among the researchers who conducted the study, although Wyeth is standing by its actions.

"Under a written confidentiality agreement Wyeth medical personnel shared a limited and balanced summary report of the data with a senior medical expert at certain critical medical societies," said Dr Victoria Kusiak, the company's North American medical director. "These discussions were meant to allow those individuals to respond knowledgeably to their constituents, at the time the [study] data became public."

Normally, strictly embargoed copies of peer reviewed journal articles are distributed to news organisations several days before publication to help in the preparation of stories. However, Wyeth's briefings to medical societies happened long before embargoed copies of the article were distributed.

With top quality randomised controlled trials showing that its HRT causes harm, Wyeth has been forced to concede that its product increases the long term risks of blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, and breast cancer, while fighting hard to maintain mass markets for short term relief of symptoms.

This week the company's public relations strategy has been to play down the significance of the findings on dementia for younger users, stressing that women in the latest study were over 65 years old.