Reuters: "U.S. court let Merck hide secrets about popular drug's risks"

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Am I reading this right, and did the court find evidence for Merck downplaying risks? But the court decided not to reveal this evidence to the public?

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Yes, Merck filed the evidence as confidential and judges are supposed to make sure that information is actually supposed to be classified correctly. They very frequently don’t.

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Fuck this drug and this company.

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Someone needs to make these bastards pay

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A quick warning, while anger is a completely reasonable response, before anyone does, do not threaten violence against your doctor, a CEO or anything else.

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Is this considered a true of false statement?

Finasteride has no affinity for the androgen receptor and has no androgenic , antiandrogenic, estrogenic, antiestrogenic, or progestational effects. Inhibition of Type II 5α-reductase blocks the peripheral conversion of testosterone to DHT, resulting in significant decreases in serum and tissue DHT concentrations.

I also found this crazy little tidbit, not sure if they were testing on mice here?
In clinical studies , single doses of finasteride up to 400 mg and multiple doses of finasteride up to 80 mg / day for three months did not result in adverse reactions .

propecia - FDA
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov › drugsatfda_docs › label
](https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2011/020788s017lbl.pdf)

This can’t be stated enough. We must use this article, our experiences, and everything we’ve been through in an intelligent and productive manner. We must brand ourselves in a credible manner. This isn’t a task up to the mods or the Foundation. It’s up to all of us. People including MDs, researchers, lawyers are going to find our forum and if we look violent, unsophisticated, or otherwise offputting, it’s a terrible look.

I’m proud to say that the vast majority of the time, we conduct ourselves perfectly. Even though we’ve been terribly impacted by a terrible drug, we’re still good people and fighting to cure ourselves. Keep it going.

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The judges also seem to be in Merck’s pockets.

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The judges are not in Merck’s pockets, at least in this case. They’re just lazy to properly do their job. To some extent, it is a logistical nightmare for a single judge to go through and verify whether all these documents should be confidential so they don’t bother. It’s an inherent flaw in the system. Tons of people get harmed as a result.

Way too many conspiracy theories have been floating around here lately.

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Apparently some already have according to one of the most recent studies I posted.

Actually what is striking is the opposite: I cannot understand how there are still people not believing that there is something at least suspicious in the Finasteride affaire.

By the way, could you define what you call “conspiracy theories”?
Is it when bad people (like criminals, thieves, corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen) envisage the idea to make a lot of money by deceiving innocent people?
If this is the case, I can send you a long list of conspiracies taking place in our time…

If not trusting those in power is believing in “conspiracy theories”, then we should urgently start teaching “conspiracy theories” to everyone, so that we can control those in power more closely.

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I think this article provides irrefutable proof that Merck did nefarious things to support Propecia sales. Here we have proof that they knew of men who developed side effects that did not resolve after they stopped taking the drug. If you look at the underlying source document, you’ll see the woman named Charlotte Merritt was serving as Global Head of Regulatory Affairs and created a false label to mislead the FDA, public, and doctors about the risks of Propecia. They did this because Merck’s own focus group studies showed that the risk of side effects was a huge deterrent for people to take the drug.

But people are throwing around allegations that are completely baseless. Even if they are true, you can’t say such crazy things without evidence. No evidence to prove the judge got paid off by Merck. This is a problem that is so pervasive in our legal system due to a faulty design. No evidence to prove Dr. Khera is a Merck agent other than a minimal $30k consulting payment. I’d rather have him not mix his livelihood with pharmaceutical companies but $30k is nothing for a doctor and its a very common practice.

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what the actual fuck?

this needs to end. now.

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I think this article could mark a major turning point. I can’t see how doctors who are staunch supporters of Propecia will be able to defend against a fraudulent warning label with missing data in it. Especially when they have leaned on Merck’s clinical trials as a backstop to say the data shows the drug is safe.

Gradually over time people will begin to take this more and more seriously and more effort and energy will be dedicated toward understanding the syndrome and looking for a treatment or cure. This doesn’t happen over night, but I think after today a lot fewer people will deny the existence of this condition even if we don’t have a solution yet.

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I really hope they do. Come on. This is essential information the public should know dammit. It´s criminal to hold information like this back.

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I wish there was a way to show our support for this petition.

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Maybe one of us could contact Reuter?

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I don’t necessarily think there is a need for anybody to individually provide support. But my guess is that the best bet way to improve chances of a success were if a doctor were to write a letter of support to the judge and emphasize how important it is for the public to know what lies in the remaining documents. The best kind of doctor would probably be an dermatologist or hair surgeon who typically prescribes the medication a lot and needs clearer guidance on how to better counsel their patients in light of recent developments.

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