A hot flush for Big Pharma

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7411.400

BMJ 2003;327:400 (16 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7411.400

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A hot flush for Big Pharma

How HRT studies have got drug firms rallying the troops

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

So the headlines have dealt another blow to the image of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Will the drug companies be ableto revive the fortunes of one of their most lucrative products?Will the big guns of the pharmaceutical industry be blazing,eager to counteract the latest volley of bad publicity? Orwill the industry construct its defences more subtly?

Certainly, if the history of HRT promotion is anything to goby, the pharmaceutical public relations machine will be doingall it can to limit the fallout from studies published lastweek in the New England Journal of Medicine (2003;349: 523-34)[Abstract/Free Full Text]and the Lancet (2003;362: 419-27)[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline], just as it has been since the first damning results from long term HRT studies were releasedlast year. After all, billions in global sales are at stake.The two latest studies confirm that postmenopausal women takingcombined HRT have an increased . . . [Full text of this article]

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Jocalyn Clark, editorial registrar

BMJ jclark@bmj.com

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