Dem
51
GOP
49
We must admit, we were not familiar with Sidney Wolfe until reader M.M. in San Diego brought his obituary to our attention. Known as the "Ralph Nader of Prescription Drugs" and "The Scourge of the Pharmaceutical Industry," he passed away this week at the age of 86.
Wolfe's focus—some said obsession—was treatments that he did not think had been properly vetted, and that he thought caused patients more harm than good. He took his B.A. in chemical engineering from Cornell in 1959, and then his M.D. from Western Reserve University (since renamed Case Western Reserve University) in 1965. He remained associated with the latter institution throughout his career, as a researcher and eventually a professor.
Not long after finishing his residency in internal medicine, Wolfe met Nader, and they decided to work together to get the FDA to recall contaminated intravenous fluid bags made by Abbott Laboratories. Writing letters to the Feds, which they then generously shared with any news media outlet that would listen, the duo managed to get 2 million faulty bags recalled in short order. They were then inundated with tips from medical professionals about other problematic medical equipment and treatments. This led the duo to co-found the Health Research Group (HRG) in 1971.
HRG became Wolfe's life's work. He was willing to take aim at anything he found health-adverse, from contact lenses to tampons to cigarettes. That said, he was best known for his skepticism about various prescription drugs, particularly the opioid painkiller Darvocet, the birth control pill Yaz, and the statin Crestor. He was able to get nine different drugs pulled from the U.S. market, and to get warning labels attached to multiple dozens of others.
In addition to his lobbying, Wolfe was a prolific author. He produced a monthly newsletter, highlighted by the "Outrage of the Month." He also produced the book Worst Pills, Best Pills: A Consumer's Guide to Avoiding Drug-Induced Death or Illness, which sold over 2 million copies, and Pills That Don't Work: A Consumers' and Doctors' Guide to Over 600 Prescription Drugs That Lack Evidence of Effectiveness. His Questionable Doctors, a series of regional works that listed specific, problematic physicians by name, presumably wasn't too popular with his colleagues, but patients certainly embraced it.
In answering his critics, Wolfe always took care to point out two things. The first is that while "outrage" was his hook, the vast majority of what he wrote was just information, so people could make their own informed decisions. The second is that he never targeted life-saving drugs, particularly those targeting cancer or AIDS, because the benefits were almost certainly greater than the downsides. In any event, his work was highly regarded enough that he was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1990.
In 2013, Wolfe retired from HRG, though he remained active with Nader's larger umbrella group, Public Citizen. Observing that his energy level was not what it was, the doctor did cut his time commitment—from 60 hours a week to... 45.
We don't want to be TOO hagiographic here; as with any true believer, Wolfe certainly overshot his mark on occasion, and sometimes did more harm than good. On the whole, however, it was clearly a life well-lived. And it surely underscores his message that, on the day he died, a new study revealed that 17,000 people may have died from taking hydroxychloroquine during the COVID pandemic. Check the scholarly research before taking things, people!
Rest well, Dr. Wolfe, and have a good weekend, all. (Z)