Charlotte Merritt, who oversaw regulatory activity at Merck related to Propecia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottemerritt
If anyone decides to write to her, please let us know what you wrote.
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Anyone know timing for when we should expect a ruling?
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IDK and unfortunately nobody will really be able to answer. Merck and the lawyers submitted a few motions back and forth to make their case and an oral argument was requested about a month ago but there’s been no activity since. Even if granted, I think we’d probably see appeals. The one thing I will say is Reuters’ motion seemed strong, especially relatively to Merck’s arguments which were obviously meant to deflect from the main issues and point fingers in places that were irrelevant. So we’ll just have to see. If somebody is a lawyer on here, maybe they can shed some more light on the typical timelines for setting oral arguments etc.
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Rogers’s assessment echoed Merck’s position. “Premature hair loss itself, the very condition for which Propecia is prescribed, is associated with low self-esteem, poor body image, and depression,” Merck’s lawyers wrote in a 2017 court filing. “Rather than attribute their sexual difficulties to the common reasons why young men with premature hair loss experience these problems, Plaintiffs instead assign blame to a drug that, once discontinued, is no longer pharmacologically active in the body.”
Not only is this grievously offensive to current sufferers and the families of those who have lost their lives because of this drug but it is also patently and demonstrably false. I would venture that fewer than 0.1% of the posts on this website, the foremost forum for patient support of this disease, even mention hair loss and when they do, it’s to lament that the prescribed solution to such a comparatively trivial, cosmetic problem has led to the problems they have now. Nobody is complaining of chronic fatigue, burning pain in their penis and prostate, anhedonia, the inability to cognitively process books and conversations, world tilting vertigo, tinittus, desensitised rubber like genitals, shrunken genitals, cracking joints, intracranial pressure, eye floaters, gastrointestinal problems, muscle weakness, brain zaps and insomnia… because of hair loss.
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Does anyone know if the fraudulent misrepresentation of data from the clinical trials (dropping people with side effects from the sample) is still what’s reflected in the finasteride patient information?
Finasteride patient information:
It’s all still in there. They haven’t updated the label since 2012.
“Resolution occurred in men who discontinued therapy with PROPECIA due to these side effects
and in most of those who continued therapy. The incidence of each of the above adverse experiences decreased to ≤0.3% by the fifth year of treatment with PROPECIA.”
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https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-propecia/
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Merck manipulated studies to issue false claims that “all” men eventually recovered from PFS
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Merck paid a shockingly low $4.3 million to settle almost all pending PFS lawsuits (less than $10K per case!)
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Merck falsely claimed that other factors like smoking or low self-esteem cause sexual dysfunction
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Only 25 lawsuits remained in Sept 2019, including one by the family of a PFS victim who jumped in front of a train.
PS On a personal note, I’ll say again “PFS recovery is NOT impossible.” I am a 51yo lawyer in Washington DC. I am extremely fortunate I 1000% naturally recovered from worst-case scenario PFS (inc. profound sexual/emotional dysfunction) after 2.5 years EXCEPT profound sleep dysfunction. I also somehow survived FOUR extremely serious suicide attempts (guns, starvation). See my previous threads!
They always talk about sexual sides and depression, never about the physical symptoms like bone loss, muscle loss, joint popping, digestive issues, etc.
I guess libido issues and depression are easy to point to psychological causes, not so much for bone loss.
Maybe it’ll help our cause if we moved the discussion away from libido issues and towards debilitating physical symptoms. People will never take us seriously if we keep focusing on solely dick problems.
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FACTS!!!
I didnt read any of the other symptoms in articles when I googled about fin (that is before the use of fin), only after I started and the damage done I found this forum and read about the slew of damage this poison does.
Somebody nuke em.
This.
The only side effects I’ve heard about fin prior to taking it were libido-related.
People would be far more cautious about this drug if they knew other physical symptoms can come from this drug.
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Also, we need to let people know the .3% side effect rate is bullshit. A Merck representative is already on record saying that figure is misleading.
That number only looks at people who can tolerate the drug well. No shit you’re going to get a low side effect rate if you’ve already filtered out the people who can’t tolerate the drug! Just scroll through the member stories. The majority of them have people who took for the drug for a few days or weeks.
The first year side effect rate was already around 4%. If you include the people who eventually get sides after a year, the percentage would be even higher.
This also calls into question the 60-80% success rates in studies, as they’re only looking at people who completed the trials. I’d wager the true success rate is below 50%.
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Agreed the physical symptoms are widespread and some very uncommon unless you’ve took fin
In effect pyhsical changes are very prevalent in PFS eg loose skin is rare unless your old yet in PFS it’s common. In terms of a law suit and settlement those who don’t get better should get about 500k considering loss of career , profound effect on personal life that’s not withstanding the destruction of one’s health. I’m at a loss as to why no firms in the UK will take on Merck when the president has already been set.
Is there any new information?
No new updates for this? This news realy shocked some merck shills !!
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Its hard to believe there is no traction. There has to be a solic out there willing to fight our case.