Did Merck Fib on Fertitily?

General Discussion Media & Awareness
#1

A new study in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility revealed that finasteride may be linked to infertility:

fertstert.org/article/S0015- … 6/abstract

Now, this is a bit tricky to make sense of, but in this Reuters report of the study, Will Boggs (who is a medical doctor himself) writes:

“In the 14 men who had semen analysis while taking finasteride and after discontinuing finasteride, the mean sperm concentration increased significantly from 13.2 million/mL to 42.25 million/mL (p=0.003).”

That while the study itself…

fertstert.org/article/S0015- … 6/abstract

…concludes:

“Finasteride, even at low doses, may cause reduced sperm counts in some men.”

But later Dr. Boggs notes:

“In its prescribing information for finasteride, which it markets as Proscar for symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia, Merck writes, ‘Treatment with Proscar for 24 weeks to evaluate semen parameters in healthy male volunteers revealed no clinically meaningful effects on sperm concentration, mobility, morphology…’”

I’m not a doctor, but isn’t Reuters pointing out that Merck lied?

#2

Here is a link to the article:
newsdaily.com/health/2e7f202 … n-some-men

Jesus - how did the FDA let this one slip by? Oopsie!

#3

So you’re saying you agree, right?

It’s not my imagination that Merck hid the truth on the fertility issue, right?

Now, what is that Latin phrase a lot of attorneys whip out in court…

Ah, yes, here it is:

“falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus”

That translates to “false in one, false in all.” And according to Wikipedia, it’s:

“A Roman legal principle indicating that a witness who willfully falsifies one matter is not credible on any matter. The underlying motive for attorneys to impeach opposing witnesses in court: the principle discredits the rest of their testimony if it is without corroboration.”

That said, if Merck did lie on fertility, can we believe them when they say there’s no scientific evidence of PFS?

Hmmmm…

#4

Let’s hope that’s the case…

#5

Well, I see that among the attorneys handling suits against Merck in the Propecia mass tort is Mr. Mark Lanier.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. Lanier’s work, you might want to read up on him:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Mark_Lanier

Better yet, let me quote from his own website:

“Mark Lanier successfully represented numerous individuals in the VIOXX cases, involving the prescription pain-relief medication that was pulled from the market after being linked to heart attacks and strokes. He set the tone for the case, nationally, when his client was awarded $253 million.”

#6

And I would like to think that Lanier is rarin’ to beat the pants off Merck again.