Letter to Roy Vagelos, creator of Fin and once CEO of Merck

Any constructive criticism before I send this message to vaginalos through LinkedIn?

Dear Mr. Vagelos.

I hope you take the time to read this message. I took your drug, Propecia for MPB. This poison has DESTROYED my very being, and my “life” (I cannot really say I have a “life” now; merely an “existence”). I am not alone; I speak for the many thousands of men that are suffering from Post-Finasteride syndrome; you only have to look at the Propecia help forum to realise that this “syndrome” is REAL and hopefully the current studies at Harvard and Baylor will prove that it actually does exist. I can tell you, as a PFS victim, it is HELL. If you could experience PFS just for one day then you would not be able to deny it, as Frazier is doing.

I am afraid that you have blood on your hands. Randy Santmann, 22, Patrick Ortiz, 24, John Pfaff, 40 and Dr. Daniel Stewart, 37, all committed suicide as a result of ingesting your “brainchild” of a poison that masquerades as a “medication”. Just so you know, Dan aspyxiated himself to death and John threw himself under a train. I do not know how Randy and Patrick went about it. I see them as my lost brethren and I fight for those good men. How do you rationalise that? Do you convince yourself that you did more good than harm? I know you eradicated river blindness and that is commendable but you still have blood stained hands. All for a bit of hair on the top of their heads. Oh and by the way I know of another man in England that committed suicide as a result of taking Propecia but his family do not want to go public. These are just the tip of the iceberg, Roy. As far as I am concerned, these boys were, effectively murdered by Merck’s misinformation about your poison.

You told us it was safe. We trusted you. You said the “side effects” (they are PERMANENT LIFE-RUINING afflictions) would disappear upon cessation of taking the drug. You knew this wasn’t true. You misled us trusting men. We put our faith in you. You let us down.

I ended up in the psychiatric unit and made a suicide attempt. I lost my businesses, my woman and my properties. Merck have stolen everything they could steal from me. I have also lost 70% of my penile tissue and now have testicular cysts (Finasteride causes testicular cysts in mice; as you well know).

What were you thinking after that birth defects seminar back in 1974? You wanted to make a drug to mimic the hormonal profile of a 5ar-deficient pseudohermaphrodite? A being with birth defects and no genitals. That is so grotesque, evil and DARK it beggars belief that any man could be so perverse as to conceive such a deed. It wasn’t “research” it was (and still is) a social experiment gone badly wrong. SHAME ON YOU. You have created a monster. Lets not even talk about Fosamax.

How do you have the sheer audacity to write a book “Merck; the moral corporation”? WHAT A JOKE. We know it’s all about the money, that’s why there is now a legal guy at the helm as Merck have so many bad products that require constant litigation. I wont bother reciting the drug names to you but let’s just say there is an array. You may be revered by the Pharma industry but we know different. We know the TRUTH.

Proscar has been cited as the cause of death for a 66 year old man. Adverse reaction. I know of a man in his 80’s who took it who developed Alzheimers 3 months later.

I just cannot believe you would market such a dangerous and toxic medication for the indication of MPB for young men, given the known side effects. Again, what were you thinking? Money at the expense of peoples health. I know a guy who is 23 who took 4 tablets and it has destroyed his life, like mine. And I know more. Many more. There will be more suicides, too. You have to be prepared for that. Are you proud? I notice there is no talk of Finasteride in your book.

I wanted to have 2 children. Now I can’t. Can you call that murder? I don’t know. 2 less souls walking on this earth because of you. I have no future because of you. We know that you knew of the possible existence of PFS BEFORE Proscar was brought to the marketplace. And you tried to get Propecia approved for teens. Unbelievably evil. Fosamax and jaw necrosis/snapped femurs? Great drug, well done! Information buried The evidence is out there now, you have been rumbled, sir!

I hope you are familiar with Izekiel 25:17. I think it is appropriate to you. You have poisoned and destroyed your brothers.

I wish you well as you enter the twilight of your life; I hope the lord has mercy on your soul. I believe success is defined as living a morally and ethically sound life and not in terms of accrued wealth and power. Where, along the way, did you lose your moralistic values?

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If you could find a postal address and send it by letter I think you’d have a better chance.

I would add a note at the end asking if he might be interested in ‘righting the wrongs’ by taking some action. It’s not too late for him to do something.

If he reads the letter, it might be the notion that he ‘could’ do something that will continue to haunt him. The criticism will likely be ignored. Just my two cents.

If you actually want him to take action and potentially be helpful, I don’t suggest the right way to do this is to accuse him of being a murderer. I don’t expect he actually expect he checks his LinkedIn, but being aggressive could make him hostile and potentially be harmful to all PFS patients when he is currently neutral.

Perhaps this is very important to note - Roy Vagelos retired from Merck in 1994 and Propecia wasn’t approved until 1997. He was known to have a bit of an ego but did lead the company through a very successful period in its history - however he did not leave a succession plan when he was required to retire in 1994. The board ended up hiring an outsider named Ray Gilmartin to become CEO and he was notoriously incompetent and not very intelligent and led the business through a very bad time. I remember reading an anecdote that Roy Vagelos personally blamed Gilmartin for the downturn. During Gilmartin’s tenure, both Propecia and Vioxx were approved and he “led” the company through the Vioxx scandal tarnishing the business’ reputation. He retired and is now a professor at Harvard Business School and no longer works in the industry, at least on a day to day basis.

The latter is really the individual that is responsible for the decay in Merck’s culture but honestly there are a handful of dishonest researchers who knew better and chose not to speak out. I totally get how angry you are as can pretty much anybody on this forum - but my opinion is that it would be better to wait for the ongoing justice process to run its course before you do something like this that could harm it.

I agree with this. I had those thoughts reading it first time over but you put it well. If the aim is to make him receptive to our cause, then being hostile will not work. Try to approach it as if he was involved in the science but not the end result. Like the scientists involved in the makings of the nuclear bomb.

Nothing changed. You need 60.000 dead bodies that pharma war machine is forced to do something. How does this guy feel. Son of the devil.

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This guy is a billionaire living into his 90’s while we suffer unimaginable torture at the hands of his brilliant discovery. He is certainly the devil in my eyes and if there is an afterlife I hope he is treated appropriately.

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事实是,我们像餐桌上的猪一样被宰了,在资本家/政客的眼里,我们和他们不属于同一物种,他们不可能对这些小白鼠有丝毫的愧疚,如果有来生,我想当印度的牛,我再也不想见到那些自以为是的傻逼了

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