NoPMU's aims are perfectly simple and easy to accomplish.

The primay goal is that PMU products are removed from sale within Australia.

Hopefully if people make a stand, PMU farming will become unprofitable and manufacture of Premarin will be rethought. All over the World people are switching to kinder products when they realise the impact we are having on the lives of these selfless animals. However we are not naive enough to believe that this will happen anytime in the near future, but it WILL happen.

Our current aim is to have Premarin removed from the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme. Many women are forced to resort to using Premarin solely because this product is on the PBS. Even though most would prefer to swap to a kinder and safer product, they are unable to do so due to the cost. We believe it is unethical to have a product on the PBS, which has been shown to cause serious illness in women and inflicts suffering on thousands of horses, without also including a realistic alternative.

Wyeth promote Premarin as a “natural” HRT drug, but a landmark government study found that Wyeth's Premarin and Prempro drugs pose grave health risks to menopausal women. 1,2,3,4,5,7

There are many alternatives to PMU use in HRT. We are by no means telling people to boycott HRT (we are not Doctors, just concerned citizens) just to find kinder and more sustainable alternatives. There are many plant based products on the market which work just as well, if not better, than Premarin. Your Doctor and Pharmacist will be more than happy to chat with you about alternative medication.

It’s time for a change. With new research into Bioidentical products, old style HRT may be a thing of the past. Premarin and Prempro contain hormones which differ chemically to those found in humans – we’re not horses after all. 3

Bioidentical therapy uses hormones that are identical to our own and allows the Doctor to write individual prescriptions based on each patients requirements, making outdated products such as Premarin obsolete. Interestingly Wyeth has recently filed a “citizen's petition” with the FDA, asking the agency to deny consumers access to Bioidentical Hormones. 3

Wyeth will tell you that Premarin is safe and point out that it guards against Cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease; however there are a multitude of texts contradicting their claims. Remember that the WHI study into both Premarin and Prempro was halted by the Data and Safety Monitoring Board when it was decided that the “overall health risks exceeded benefits.” 7

Unfortunately in the most recent report by Wyeth for the first half of 2006, Premarin sales have increased helping add to the company’s $10 billion profit. 8

With that much money they should be the forerunners for synthetic or plant based hormones. The petition sent to the FDA, confirms their trepidation that Equine hormones are obsolete and in jeopardy of being replaced by modern substitutes.

An Australian based company has developed a free range system for use in collecting urine and although not an ideal solution (we would rather see this industry halted) is at least a step in the right direction. 6

An online version of the study can be found at:

www.thorgard.com.au/PDF/Thorgard_Report_2005.pdf

If this (or similar) products need to be used as a stepping stone between stages, then so be it. We would rather see action taken to relieve the suffering of these animals now rather than have it forgotten about again.

Please help us eradicate this product from the market. We can only do this if we work together.

 

References

1) Rossouw JE, Anderson GL, Prentice RL, et al. Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: Principal results from the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2002 July 17;288(3):321–33.
2) Anderson GL, Limacher M, Assaf AR, et al. Effects of conjugated equine estrogen in postmenopausal women with hysterectomy: the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2004 Apr 14;291(14):1701-12.
3) www.medaus.com/p/333.html
4) www.lef.org/magazine/mag2002/dec2002_cover_premarin_01.html
5) www.fda.gov/CDER/DRUG/safety/WHI_statement.htm
6) Jongman ec, Bidstrup I and Hemsworth PH, Applied Animal Behaviour Science 93 (2005) 147–163 (www.thorgard.com.au/PDF/Thorgard_Report_2005.pdf)
7) jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/288/3/321
8) www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-20-2006/0004400294&EDATE