News Spinning & American Home Products

This article is just one example of how the “news” works and why it’s important to get your news information from more than one source.

We’ve seen several articles in the last few days related to American Home Products and the new vaccine they were pushing during NBC’s ER commercial break. Though the company claims it had no hand in the shows pro-vaccine message, some strongly beg to differ.

American Home Products makes drugs. It was American Home Products that brought us the failed rotavirus vaccine as well as the diet drugs Fen-Phen which has resulted in a multi-billion dollar proposed settlement due to heart valve damage that resulted in those taking the drugs.

Today there are a few news articles related to recent studies that look at the health of those who were taking the drugs Fen-Phen. Both articles talked about the study and suggested that the health outcomes appear to look good for those that were affected by the drugs and that valve damage has not gotten worse.

One article mentions the following: “American Home Products agreed last year to pay up to $3.75 billion in a proposed settlement that could cover all 6 million users of the drugs, sold under the brand names Pondimin and Redux.”

The drugs were pulled from the market after a 1997 study found that patients who took fen-phen showed heart valve damage.

The second article which appeared on our outside-in news feeds at the same time basically stated the same thing, that researchers found promising results and that valve damage was not getting worse.

However, the second article makes no mention of American Home Products or the proposed settlement. Down towards the bottom of the article they do tell us (for no seemingly apparent reason) who funded the research study which showed such promising results. The study was funded by the Wyeth-Ayerst Research Division of Wyeth-Ayerst laboratories in Philadelphia.

If your paying attention (which they hope you aren’t) you’ll notice that American Home Products is the parent company of Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. The parent company funds the lab who funds the research which finds that the problems encountered “do not worsen” and heart damage is “seen improving” in those who took the drugs that are responsible for a “proposed” multi-billion dollar settlement.

Have a wonderful drug-free day!

Nando Times: Heart damage in fen-phen users seen improving, study says
Yahoo News: Valve Problems Do Not Worsen in Fen-Phen Patients