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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Hankies at the Ready

waaah!!To judge from TV commercials, we need to lose weight - buy a workout machine - consolidate our credit debt. We burst into song over low-priced car insurance. We bond with our families over pizza or fried chicken, often in the new family vehicle. New cleaning supplies and the right deodorant are the keys to a happy home. Our women search obsessively for new wrinkles or unwanted facial hair. Our men worry about sexual performance and fret over falling hair. Everybody has dandruff and yellowed, stained teeth. All we need to do, it seems, is buy the right product and our problems are solved. But then, once the products are bought, there's a new twist:

We're a nation of victims, trembling in the corner. We've been pushed into that corner by Big Pharma, or Incompetent Medical Practitioners, who have robbed us of our rights, our dignity, our fortunes (aided and abetted by Heartless Insurance Companies). We would surely be crushed in that dark corner, were it not for the selfless Personal Injury Lawyer, looking straight into the camera and solemnly promising to Come to the Aid of Injured Citizens.

Last summer a new appeal was launched on the airwaves: "If you or someone you love has suffered from Jaw Death ..." (cue dramatic music). Hmmm, our old friend osteonecrosis of the jaw. A class action suit was filed April 10, 2006, against Merck, maker of Fosamax. Hmmm, Merck, maker of Vioxx. Yummmm, deep pockets and a record of settling lawsuits. Parallel class action suits have been built and subsumed into the Fosamax suit for other bisphosphonate drugs Actonel, Aredia, Boniva, Skelid and Zometa. Didronel and Reclast are mentioned as bisphosphonates but I've not seen specific suits for these products.

This site summarizes most of the available information on the disease and its causes, treatment options, and other resources. On the whole, it's well presented, especially as one emanating from a personal injury lawyer's office: no scare tactics, little overstatement, very straightforward (but don't overlook the handy form for more information)

But wait! Is this as risky as it sounds, when Mr. Soulful Personal Injury Lawyer is crying Real Tears over your plight? The University of Alabama-Birmingham has put together an excellent site on osteoporosis, which includes this reasoned risk assessment. Kind of like putting sour cream on chili, to my thinking.

I'm not saying that any drug is completely safe, that any pharmaceutical company is blameless, that there isn't smoke without fire. I find it interesting that, after the initial flurry of ads, I've never seen another one. Did they not get enough response to continue? One can only hope ...

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