Claim: Wyeth Wins U.S. OK to Sell Pristiq for Depression.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Fred Hassan
text: National Institutes of Health, to lead its research and development team. Wyeth entered into the biotechnology field by buying Genetics Institute in 1991. The company also acquired A.H. Robins in 1989 and American Cyanamid in 1994 to strengthen its global operations. Important billion dollar innovations including Effexor (anti-depressant), Enbrel (anti-inflammatory) and Prevnar (vaccine) came out of these strengthened operations. In 1997, Hassan was asked to take over as CEO of the failing merger of Pharmacia and Upjohn (PNU). As CEO of PNU, Hassan made many changes, including moving its headquarters from the UK to New Jersey. Fifteen months after taking

title: Wyeth
text: for these abuses. Wyeth was sued for its marketing of Prempro, a hormone replacement therapy, which was implicated in the cancers of 14,000 patients. Wyeth was particularly criticised by observers for its use of 'ghostwriters' to put their names to research papers that Wyeth had paid a third party, DesignWrite, to prepare. The drug combination fenfluramine/phentermine, usually called "fen-phen," was an anti-obesity treatment. Fenfluramine was marketed by Wyeth as Pondimin, but was shown to cause potentially fatal pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems. Wyeth Wyeth was a pharmaceutical company purchased by Pfizer in 2009. The company was founded in Philadelphia,

title: Desvenlafaxine
text: was made available in the US. On February 4, 2009, Health Canada approved use of desvenlafaxine for treatment of depression. Pristiq is now available in Canadian pharmacies. In 2008, Wyeth withdrew its application for Ellefore, the product under review for treatment of major depressive disorder in the European Union. In 2012, Pfizer received authorization in Spain to market Pristiq for the disorder in 50 mg and 100 mg tablets. Desvenlafaxine is classified as a schedule 4 (prescription only) drug in Australia. It was listed on the PBS (Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) in 2008 for the treatment of MDD (Major Depressive Disorders).

title: Wyeth
text: Wyeth's Kolynos brand of toothpaste. In 1929, Stuart Wyeth died and left controlling interest to Harvard University. In 1930, Wyeth purchased Anacin, a product for tension headaches which quickly became the company's flagship product. One year later, Harvard sold Wyeth to American Home Products (AHP) for US$2.9 million. In 1935, Alvin G. Brush, a Certified Public Accountant, became CEO of the organization and served for 30 years. Under Brush's leadership, 34 new companies were acquired in 15 years, including Chef Boyardee and the "S.M.A. Corporation", a pharmaceutical firm specializing in infant formulas. Wyeth also made its first licensing deal, acquiring

title: Wyeth
text: a large-scale clinical trial for hormone replacement therapy showed that long-term use of progestin and estrogen may increase the risk of strokes, heart attacks, blood clots, and breast cancer. Following these results, Wyeth experienced a significant decline in its sales of Premarin, Prempro (conjugated equine estrogens), and related hormones, from over $2 billion in 2002 to just over $1 billion in 2006. The results from the study were significant enough that Wyeth terminated the trials early due to a fear that their participants may be at risk. Wyeth, as a corporation, filed a "citizens' complaint" with the US FDA on

title: Wyeth
text: an antibiotic for arthritis vaccine research. In 1941, the US entered World War II, and AHP shipped typical wartime drugs such as sulfa bacteriostatics, blood plasma, typhus vaccine, quinine, and atabrine tablets. Wyeth was later rewarded for its contribution to the war effort. During this time, Wyeth launched its penicillin research facility with G. Raymond Rettew. In 1943, Wyeth purchased "G. Washington Coffee Refining Company", an instant coffee company created by George Washington. In 1943, AHP merged with "Ayerst, McKenna and Harrison, Ltd." of Canada. With this merger came Premarin, the world's first conjugated estrogen medicine, which was a flagship

title: Wyeth
text: Officer effective on January 1, 2008. During June 2009, an Arkansas federal judge granted public access to evidence that Wyeth Pharmaceuticals "ghostwrote" medical articles regarding its hormone therapy drug Prempro. Along with "The New York Times", PLoS Medicine, represented by the law firm Public Justice, had sought to intervene in a court case of women bringing an action in relation to Prempro and other hormone therapy drugs, in order to unseal papers that allegedly showed that Wyeth failed to disclose its role in preparing medical journal articles promoting Prempro and in recruiting academic authors to put their names on the

title: Wyeth
text: and merging it into its Whitehall unit to establish its Whitehall-Robins Division. In 1990, Reckitt & Colman (now Reckitt Benckiser) acquired Boyle-Midway from American Home Products. After a dedication of the food business, the PAM trademark becomes part of American Home Foods. Premarin became the most prescribed drug in the US in 1993. Effexor (venlafaxine HCl), the first serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), is introduced for the treatment of clinical depression and is later indicated for generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder. In 1993, AHP founded the "Women's Health Research Institute", the only institute in the pharmaceutical industry entirely dedicated

title: Peter Rost (doctor)
text: consultant. Rost worked at medical advertising agencies prior to working for pharmaceutical companies. Rost started working at Wyeth in approximately 1992; seven years after joining Wyeth, he was promoted to head of Wyeth-Lederle Nordiska, Wyeth's Scandinavian subsidiary. Rost has said that he doubled sales during his tenure. He became concerned about Wyeth's accounting practices and informed upper management of his concerns. Shortly thereafter, he was transferred from Sweden to New Jersey, a move he characterized as a retaliatory demotion. He filed a lawsuit against Wyeth, which was settled out of court for undisclosed terms. Rost left Wyeth for Pharmacia in

title: Wyeth
text: Chairman in 1986. He completed the divestiture of non-core businesses such as household products (for example the Slaymaker lock company), foods, candy (Brach's Candy), and medical devices (e.g., its Sherwood-Medical Company was sold to Tyco-Kendal in 1997). In 1987 AHP merged its Wyeth and Ayerst divisions to unite its pharmaceutical businesses, forming Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories. In the late 1980s, AHP acquired the animal health businesses of Bristol-Myers and Parke-Davis. In negotiations that lasted from 1986 to 1989, AHP acquired A.H. Robins which had been driven into bankruptcy by litigation over Dalkon Shield, and which also sold Reglan, Robitussin, ChapStick, and Dimetapp,

title: Peter Rost (doctor)
text: Pharmaceutical Marketing Expert Witness. Rost was featured in the award-winning documentary film "Fire in the Blood" in 2013. In January 2003, the "New York Times" published an article describing a whistleblowing lawsuit Rost had filed against Wyeth, claiming that Wyeth had practiced tax and compensation fraud worldwide, and describing Rost's separate lawsuit against Wyeth for removing him from heading a staff of 125 Wyeth-Lederle Nordiska to heading a group of eight people in New Jersey, which Rost described as a retaliatory demotion and Wyeth described as a promotion. Later in 2003, Wyeth settled the whistleblowing lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

title: Fateful Harvest
text: sell the grass, its Quincy manager John Williams sells it to a neighbor for her horses. Several of the horses die. Meanwhile, DeYoung hires lawyers, but does not make much headway against Cenex, which has the state government on its side (53). Another farmer purchasing from Cenex, Tom Witte, finds that his fields yielded substantially less, and his cows begin getting cancer. His field man gets muscular dystrophy, and in 1991 he files for bankruptcy. This draws the attention of several community members, led by Patty Martin. When Patty Martin calls the EPA, she is confused with Senator Patty Murray

title: Levonorgestrel-releasing implant
text: 26, 1999, after winning 3 jury verdicts, 20 pretrial summary judgments and the dismissal of 14,000 claims, Wyeth offered out-of-court cash settlements of $1,500 each to about 36,000 women who contended that they had not been adequately warned about possible side effects of Norplant such as irregular menstrual bleeding, headaches, nausea and depression. Wyeth said that most of the plaintiffs experienced routine side effects described in Norplant's labeling information. Wyeth did not admit to any wrongdoing, saying the settlement offer "was purely a business decision," noting "our legal success has come at a steep price because lawsuits are time-consuming, expensive,

title: Wyeth
text: efficacy data for those primarily engaged in alternative medicine. The European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection blamed the presence of illegal steroids in the food supply on "fraudulent exchange and disposal of pharmaceutical waste". A Wyeth factory disposing of the byproducts from progestin manufacture was the source of the contamination. In 2003 Wyeth reportedly contributed funds to a not-for-profit support group, The Meningitis Centre, which lobbied the Australian government to introduce universal immunisation against pneumococcal disease. Wyeth produced the only pneumococcal vaccine approved for young children in Australia. In September 2007, Bernard Poussot was appointed President and Chief Executive

title: Wyeth
text: articles for publication—that is that they practised ghost writing. On January 23, 2009, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Pfizer was in talks to buy Wyeth at a cost of US$68 billion. On January 25, Pfizer agreed to the purchase, a deal financed with cash, shares and loans. The deal was completed on October 15, 2009. The purchase was approved by the SEC and went into effect later in 2009, although vestiges of Wyeth remained for another year or two while effects of the merger were ironed out. On October 15, 2009, Pfizer signed the final acquisition papers making Wyeth

title: Wyeth
text: in the blood.) A "whistleblower suit" was filed against Wyeth in 2005 alleging that the company illegally marketed their drug Rapamune. Wyeth is targeted in the suit for off-label marketing, targeting specific doctors and medical facilities to increased sales of Rapamune, trying to get current transplant patients to change from their current transplant drugs to Rapamune and for specifically targeting African-Americans. According to the whistleblowers, Wyeth also provided doctors and hospitals with kickbacks to prescribe the drug in the form of grants, donations and other money. A US House of Representatives committee, led by Rep. Edolphus Towns is investigating Wyeth

title: Pfizer
text: on, but isolated him until the FCA suit was unsealed in 2005. The Justice Department declined to intervene, and Pfizer fired him, and he filed a wrongful termination suit against Pfizer. Pfizer won a summary dismissal of the case, with the court ruling that the evidence showed Pfizer had decided to fire Rost prior to learning of his whistleblower activities. A "whistleblower suit" was filed in 2005 against Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2009, alleging that the company illegally marketed their drug Rapamune. Wyeth is targeted in the suit for off-label marketing, targeting specific doctors and medical facilities

title: Hormone replacement therapy
text: MPA). In 2009, litigation involving Wyeth resulted in the release of 1,500 documents that revealed practices concerning its promotion of these medications. The documents showed that Wyeth commissioned dozens of ghostwritten reviews and commentaries that were published in medical journals in order to promote unproven benefits of its HRT products, downplay their harms and risks, and cast competing therapies in a negative light. Starting in the mid-1990s and continuing for over a decade, Wyeth pursued an aggressive "publication plan" strategy to promote its HRT products through the use of ghostwritten publications. It worked mainly with DesignWrite, a medical writing firm.

title: Wyeth
text: product for AHP until 2002, when preliminary results from the Women's Health Initiative linked it to a number of negative effects, including increased risk for breast cancer. Sales subsequently fell off worldwide. AHP was one of 22 companies selected by the government in 1944 to manufacture penicillin for the military, and later for the general public. In 1945, AHP acquired the Fort Dodge Serum Company, entering the animal health field. In 1951, AHP launched Antabuse, a drug for the treatment of alcoholism, as well as the antihistamine Phenergan. Ansolyen was launched the next year as a high blood pressure medication.

title: Medical ghostwriter
text: and 2% of "Nature Medicine" were ghost written. Between 1998 and 2005 Wyeth had 26 papers promoting hormone replacement therapy (HRT) published in scientific journals. Previously secret internal Wyeth documents providing evidence of this are viewable on the Drug Industry Document Archive. It also appears to have occurred in 75% of industry funded trials between 1994 - 1995 approved by the Scientific Ethical Committees for Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. Of the articles published from 1998 to 2000 regarding sertraline, between 18% and 40% were ghost written by Pfizer. A questionnaire using comparable methods in 2005 and 2008 with a 14-28% response