the only human estrogen replacement drugs derived from animal hormones -- since 1942.
At the peak of its production in the mid-1990s, 10 million women were taking Premarin. But in 2002, the landmark Women's Health Initiative stopped trials when these estrogen-based drugs were linked to strokes. Today fewer than 4 million of the 23 million women who report menopause symptoms use Premarin, according to Wyeth spokesman Natalie de Vane.
When the value of hormone replacement therapy was questioned, Wyeth's thriving $2 billion a year Premarin sales were cut in half. By 2003, the company cut its ranch contracts from 200 to 72, said de Vane. Today, according to the company, only 5,000 to 7,000 mares are still in production.
Animal rescue groups say the number of PMU mares is actually much higher, about 17,500. The UAN bases its estimates on an average of 250 horses per farm, rather than the 100 that Wyeth uses.
Last month's announcement that breast cancer rates had dropped 7 percent since 2003 has many researches linking the drop to the fact that millions of women quit hormone replacement therapy in 2002. Animal rescue groups now worry that even more women will quit HRT, and, in turn, more PMU horses will be discarded.
In a war of words, Wyeth and animal rescue organizations clash not only on the number of horses' lives at stake but over the conditions in which these animals are raised.
For much of the 11-month pregnancy, mares are kept immobile in narrow stalls, strapped to urine collection cups. After the foals are born -- one a year -- the horses are re-impregnated and the cycle begins again. PMU mares can produce only for 12 to 13 years and are then adopted or slaughtered.
"It's a secret business," said Helen Meredith, director of the Arizona-based United Pegasus Foundation, which has placed 5,000 PMU horses for adoption since its founding in 1996. "They are kept in stalls, 4-by-8-feet long, where they stand for six months at a time when they are pregnant. The harness comes down from the ceiling and straps between the legs to hold the collection pouch in place. They have little room to walk back and forth."
The foundation also supports about 75 unadoptable PMU mares, many more than 20 years old, and those who are disabled by injuries. The drug industry prefers those under 12. "Like women, the younger they are, the higher their estrogen levels," Meredith said.
