Wyeth Pharmaceuticals responds to hormone therapy research

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has reiterated its support of appropriately-used hormone therapy after a new study by the Women’s Health Institute (WHI) was published.

The follow-up study claimed that those taking oestrogen plus progestin had an increased risk of stroke, blood clots, breast cancer and heart attack, while those on oestrogen had a high likelihood of stroke and blood clots.

However, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals said that this data provided “little new insight” into hormone therapy use for newly menopausal women.

It maintained that this type of treatment is still a “good” choice for the relief of moderate to severe menopausal symptoms.

Wyeth also said that professionals and consumers should be aware of the caution in drawing general conclusions from the data, which involved participants with an average age of 63.

“Reanalysis of WHI findings has repeatedly shown that the risks associated with hormone therapy use in this older study population were not consistently shared across all outcomes by the younger subset of women,” it added.

Dr Gary L Stiles, executive vice-president and chief medical officer at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, added that the selective release of information was “not in the best interest of menopausal women”.

“It may needlessly cause confusion,” he concluded.

Last week saw Wyeth announce the approval of its depressive disorder treatment drug, Pristiq.