House Oversight Committee chairman Ed Towns of New York (D) has accused Pfizer newly acquired unit, Wyeth, of targeting African Americans in its testing and sales of the kidney transplant drug Rapamune. Chairman Towns, having reviewed the situation first hand, suggests that Wyeth’s behavior is nothing short of the Tuskegee Institute scandal that brought the insidious and pervasive nature of racism in America. These allegations are apparently supported by a qui tam whistleblower lawsuit brought by former sales representatives who allege that Wyeth targeted African American patients for the unapproved “off label” use of Rapamune. Disturbingly, the allegations include statements that Wyeth did not have data supporting the efficacy and safety of the drug but went ahead and targeted African Americans nonetheless.
Rapimune is a drug used in patients who received kidney transplants and is designed or reported to aid in patients’ immune response to new organs by reducing the possibility of rejection of new kidneys.
Towns, in a press release, said:
The most egregious problem here is that, unbeknown to the African Americans’ they allegedly targeted, their lives were placed at serious risk for life threatening ailments.
… Unfortunately, these marketing techniques are reminiscent of Tuskegee all over again.
Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz abhors racism and is not only pursuing injury and wrongful death claims relating to Rapamune, but is pursuing other claims against pharmaceutical manufacturers who have disproportionately placed African Americans at unnecessary increased risk without warning.