Money compensation seems the most realistic and feasible recovery

General Discussion
#22

Who exactly has given up their legal action as a result of this forum’s existence?

A long US class action with around 500 participants ended in a settlement of around 4 million which averagely resulted in a few thousand dollars per patient, which incredibly many settled for, ruling out their ability to seek legal recourse in the future. The legal action was a failure due to the lack of proof.

That is a completely unfounded and deeply insulting statement regarding the foundation. The community does not give an amount of practical substance to it, and their pockets are not filled - their spending is a matter of public record.

I would advise taking your frustration out on something else, not the two primary points of organisation supporting demonstrable progress understanding this condition. Both take a lot more work than you appreciate.

6 Likes
#23

man these excuses u make on not to hit on PFS foundation sounds like being MERCK’s apologist. no kidding man u might be a victim of propecia but u sound like an apologist… everybody in his right mind should question PFS foundation legitimacy, name one thing that they did that is VIABLE and TANGIBLE for pfsers? probably just making pfs donations taxfree and taxdeductable ? hmm?!! that being said i didnt question ALL the foundation, i say there might be some people in there who want to deter pfsers from taking on Merck effectively.

#24

i choose not to take your advice. i am not frustrated at all :slightly_smiling_face: , tbh i am recovered TO SOME EXTENT. and am pretty sure im doing much better than people who are accusing me of being frustrated… i just want money for my ruined days/life, and PFS foundation is not some religious figure who u cant criticize.

better read my whole post then jump into a conclusion.
IF THIS FORUM WAS HELPING PFSERS LEGALLY RATHER THAN TRIAL AND ERROR PROTOCOLS AND MOSTLY FALSE AND UNREACHABLE HOPES it would have served us victims better.

EDIT: whoever read this post mark this day may/26/2019 <<< i bet my life 2 years from now nothing will change for PFS victims, NOTHING, i think if pfsers face the bitter reality Merck might not get away so EASILY. a lot of people give up going after MERCK cause they think there WILL be a relief (huh?!!)…and they put their energy on recovering, i think from the first day of crash if people realize that recovery is somehow impossible then a lot of things could have been gone differently for MERCK

#25

Whether you are “doing much better” or not is completely irrelevant to what you are saying, which is erratic and baseless. Their IRS records are publicly available and you can spend time digging them out and look for yourself.

I did read your post, and what you have typed in capitals is not what you said. You said this:

I asked you who had given up planned legal action due to the existence of this forum, which you’ve now said is a lot of people.

#26

This literally makes no sense. The Foundation spends money and effort to raise media awareness and organize research in PFS. Without the foundation there would be very little interest because PFS is an orphan disease. They have nothing to do with Merck and you sound like a lunatic for accusing me of being a Merck apologist because I defended the foundation. Please be careful with the message your communicate. You are contributing to the impression that PFS patients and not sane.

You don’t seem to understand the legal process at all. I was trying to be nice before, but you have no case because you took Propecia after there was a warning for persisting side effects. Other patients had the chance to sue for “failure to warn” because there was no warning for a very long time, but there was some warning on the label at the time you took Propecia and you decided to take the risk anyway.

#27

i am not sure is it intentional that u dont understand or really u dont get the point!!! when som1 crashes and find this forum…he reads stories about recoveries… also stories on people trying different things to get better. so he forgets about going after MERCK(the main culprit) and start to put energy on protocols and shit. its like his fault that he ended up with PFS…not MERCK’s. it seems everybody forgets about MERCK’s role in our misery.
“this forum is double edged sword it both serves pfsers and also hurts them in a way that they give-up going after MERCK legally”".>>>> cause it doesnt offer any legal help which is more important than shady protocols

#28

You better watch ur mouth… u r being lunatic dude i am just typing out my comment and u seem like some1 hired u to bash negative comments with instantly responding to them. if you go on reddit which a lot of “SANE” people are there, there are lots of contradicted views… so dont dare to label me with things that fits u better.
as if you are the only one who knows everything here … legal processes… dont roll in mud here dude… your argument doesnt make any sense. this drug is screwing lives and the label you mentioned is on pretty much every medication. that doesnt mean they can cause adverse side effect to this degree

EDIT: its absurd i just recommended that on top of the things that this forum and PFS foundation is doing they should offer legal help too… and instantly i got bashed by “frustrated” and the other guy “ax…”, its like im chatting with a MERCK HR employee :smiley:(as i am typing out this comment, ive got the notification that both are replying to my comments lol)

#29

It is actually not common at all to see a warning for persisting side effects on drugs which is what made this situation so unusual. In fact there was no warning about this at all until 2012 when the FDA made Merck add a warning that there were reports of persisting side effects.

What you also don’t seem to be aware of is members of this forum set up the original lawsuits nearly a decade ago now. Most of them did not play out favorably for a variety of reasons but the lawyers would not even take any clients who took the drug after 2012 because of the warning label change. Over 1,000 clients signed up and the process is done for most people.

Please don’t suggest that I’m a Merck HR employee. It’s ridiculous and I am just trying to help explain the situation to you since I have been here awhile. You don’t seem too interested in hearing the truth though so I won’t bother beyond here.

#30

with all the things u said, in your opinion . what should a person do who crashes (say) 2 weeks later ? he should sit and wait ?!! i am all ear for ur recommendation for the persona i pictured

#31

I tend to understand the point of what someone is saying by what they actually write. Giving a story of a hypothetically imagined person is not supportive of what you just said - I am not sure if you can appreciate that. Certainly it wouldn’t bode well for what you imagine might pass in court…

We provide a patient support forum. Our website and admin posts communicate information from “this forum” as a site. We do not endorse “protocols”. Otherwise, within the rules, some patients choose to talk about self medicating and want to share and hear outcomes. Others want to document their experience and connect and organise with others. We do not give “legal help” because that is the job of a law firm, not a patient forum run by and for affected patients. Not sure why that isn’t obvious…

Additionally, as I just told you a long running mass class action of over 500 claimants recently failed and ended in a tiny settlement due to lack of evidence - which is what we and the PFS foundation are working towards. Please see below.

I think it’s very rich to be making paranoid accusations against other members and all those actually organising to help patients while you are saying you “just want money” and that you are “90% better”. How do you think that would play on reddit.

I’m not going to spend more time on this but what you are saying includes serious accusations that are demonstrably untrue. That is not really a criticism and is not grounds for accusation of others who are doing their best. It’s a lot easier to complain than to put effort into helping. Whatever the situation in two years, the staff of this forum and the foundation will have tried our hardest to help further scientific understanding of this condition.

If you want to start a court case now, pick up the phone and call a lawyer.

1 Like
#32

u know better than anyone else that calling a lawyer ON MY OWN as an individual wouldnt change anything,

people are getting money cause they GOT cancer because of a product(they cured afterwards)… they didnt die of cancer, they got it and they cured it, but suing the company gave them the money…not dying off cancer

#33

Ignorance of what? Did you miss the bit of my post regarding the recent outcome of the case with 560 participants, and the topic regarding what a participant’s settlement consisted of? I really suggest reading back over this thread because if you are somehow suggesting people are not in their right minds for pointing out that this has recently failed entirely, that this site is not a law firm, and you shouldnt make up lies about embezzling funds then I’m at a loss.

1 Like
#34

its 2+2
for last time im explaining as SIMPLE as i can so i HOPE you will understand
offering legal help and backing up victims effectively(spread the word to bring attention…) to get money for victims and for researches is the only option that can help victims in short/long run. a lot of pfsers will end up on the streets cause they cant work and make money.<<< this is the real threat for now. other than that WISHING for a miracle medication and researches to find something is so far and unreachable.

edit: i have nothing against u, i just read ur story… i am not accusing of any1 being merck’s employee. BUT labeling every negative/recommendation comment as lunatic or answering them aggressively is not a respectful/wise way to find a solution that was my opinion … that beside researches, victims also need some means to take on MERCK(legally)

#35

I am fully aware of the predicament, more than most. I lost my career and everything else because of how this drug has damaged my physical and mental health. I don’t do this for fun. Most patients here are not in the condition I am and I and the staff do this out of responsibility to do our best to make a difference.

I am trying to get across to you that we do not have final proof of the causative role of finasteride in what has happened to us and therefore what you are insisting on over and over has demonstrably failed on a large scale as of last year. The person I linked ended up getting $0. Repeatedly saying something is the best idea does not make that the case. I am not trying to tell you it is not right we are uncompensated - I am trying to tell you we need more scientific evidence for any success in that, or for those of us very severely damaged, any other regard.

2 Likes
#36

gotcha :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#37

That’s a little bit of an oversimplification. We do have strong evidence of the causal role, largely from Belknap’s study, but the case wasn’t tried effectively and ultimately the plaintiff’s lawyers decided they would rather settle for nothing and walk away. More evidence would have made the case less challenging.

However this guy should know that he would never have a chance even with perfect evidence. There was a warning at the time he first ingested Propecia and in order to win a product liability case you need to make the argument that the manufacturer’s failure to warn of a risk caused you harm. They warned him in his case, he either didn’t do the research or was willing to take the risk and didn’t like the outcome.

#38

this guy is either insane or on mercks payroll, he is CLEARLY justifying MERCK’s role in our misery, he is just saying MERCK warned us so dont do anthing against them. besides that how do u know first dose i take was after the label change?? im done here i dont want to state the obvious but here is the case : i made a comment against MERCK and the importance of hitting on them instead of… and “frustrated” accused me all kind of nonsense and in the end he states MERCK warned me of ALL THESE SYMPTOMS so no blame on them… how pathetic

#39

No, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do anything but I am telling you that can’t do anything. That is how American tort law works. Their responsibility in harming me was very different than their role in harming you. I did my research about the risks and asked doctors and they hid information from me and my doctors which is fraud. At the time you took the drug, the information was available to you.

You mentioned earlier in this post that you developed PFS 3 years ago which is already 4 years after the 2012 label change. By that time there were also plenty of news articles about the risks of Propecia, the PFS Foundation existed and you just didn’t do your research to learn about the risks you were taking. Merck’s warning is still inadequate but the situation in 2016 was very different compared to when I took the drug.

#40

JFYI first dose i took was before 2012 and yes it was prescribed and it is in my Rx history BUT even if i took propecia yesterday that doesnt mean their shady ass label change justify all the symptoms… just to make this clear you can make an employee sign every kind of contract but in the end of the day if you abuse him no matter what he signed he has the right to sue you, the sypmtoms are so noxious that no label change will save their ass

#41

An IV for 60 hours?
Wut