Who makes Premarin and Prempro?
Wyeth
Pharmaceuticals, who first manufactured and produced the Premarin family of hormone
replacement therapy (HRT) drugs for the treatment of menopausal
symptoms in women, were bought out in 2009, and now a Division of Pfizer.
What are PMU's?
Premarin stands for Pre(gnant) Mar(e's) (Ur)in(e) and commonly referred
to as PMU. These drugs are made with conjugated equine estrogens (CEE),
and commonly sold under the names Premarin, Prempro and
Premphase.
How is Premarin made?
Mares are kept pregnant, given little water to increase the
concentration of estrogens in their urine, kept standing in stalls so
small they cannot lie down to rest, and milked continuously in these conditions until they are ready to foal. The only time they are free
is when they are taken offline to give birth. PMU mares are then turned out into
fields so they can be impregnated for another
cycle. Although the average lifespan is 24, PMU mares live to be around 8 years old.
Where do the horses go when they can no longer produce?
When used up, PMU mares are sent to auction where, except
a small percentage who are bought and taken in by a horse rescue or sanctuary, they are bought by killer buyers and end their lives in a slaughterhouse.
Nearly every foal produced dies the same way. A number of these foals are shipped live to countries
like Japan where their tender young meat is prized for making sushi (called basashi).
Introduced in the 1950's, this means that hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of
beautiful, innocent foals have been martyred for the production of
Premarin and its sister drugs.
Is Premarin and Prempro safe?
Premarin and Prempro are proven to cause or enhance the development of various cancers in the breast and ovaries, among other life threatening diseases such as blood clots. Inevitably, the lawsuits followed. Wyeth have settled a
large percentage of them, with sealed judgments so the public cannot know the extent of damages proved or amounts paid
out.
As word spread, the market began to downsize significantly, although
reports said at the time that Wyeth have drums and drums of pregnant mare's urine in
storage to continue to sell the drugs.
So, are the drugs still sold?
Although some women refused to take Premarin and Prempro because of cruelty
to horses, it was the threat to women's health that ultimately caused
the sales of these drugs to decline.
Declines in sales and the closing of PMU ranches in North America meant a decline in activism against the
PMU industry, with the issue attracting little attention.
However, sales are brisk again, especially with the advent of online marketing where people can buy Premarin and Prempro easily, cheaply and without a prescription.
The increase in sales of Premarin and Prempro does not mean, however,
that Pfizer is re-opening PMU ranches in North America. They decided
instead to set up PMU collection ranches in
countries such as China, Kazakhstan and Poland – countries where horse
slaughter and the human
consumption of horse and foal meat is accepted and animal advocacy
virtually nil.
