I don’t think propecia should be removed from the market. I think it should come with a HUGE warning label disclosing all known side effects and the severity and possibility of the persistence of these side effects. I think doctors should be brought up to speed on what the drug really does, and truly educate/warn patients about the risks/benefits of taking this drug. I think Merck should come clean with everything they’ve known about this drug they’ve modeled from hermaphroditic children with 5AR deficiency and throw all their efforts and financial resources into figuring out the precise mechanism of the persistent sexual and cognitive side effects and expediently help to heal the PFS sufferers out there, compensate them for their health bills and then some.
But I don’t want to take away the right of a transgender considering a sex change to utilize this drug; I don’t want to take away the right of a 70 year old man who is so burdened with nighttime urination to make an informed decision to weigh the cost and benefits of this drug and possibly alleviate his BPH with this drug (if this is the option he feels is best). Informed consent is all anyone ever asks for: Tell me what you really know, how this thing really works, what ALL known side effects are. If this data had been presented to me, I would not have chosen to take finasteride. Even after having started finasteride, plenty of time had passed to where there were PFS reports that could have been communicated to doctors and myself to allow me to quit the drug while I was still ahead. This is what bugs me. I don’t care to legislate someone’s informed choice to consume sugar or tobacco or a pharmaceutical: just don’t lie or obscure the truth surrounding what those things do in your marketing. Don’t fudge the data, don’t suppress what you know, don’t ignore the patient feedback of side effects.
I think attempting to take this drug off the market is the wrong approach. You risk the backlash of all the insecure balding guys (who are fine, or think they’re fine now – time will tell) who want to keep this drug on the market along with the aforementioned groups. If these groups of people knowingly elect to use this drug with full disclosure of what it does, what it can cause, etc., then it’s their choice.
I’m not gonna sit around here and debate this. You either get the nuance of what I’m saying, or are ruled purely by emotion / hatred for propecia and Merck. And I understand that – they suck, it’s not fair – but just because they were unethical doesn’t mean I will change my principles.