Ban PMU Farms in China

Dear Sirs,

Pregnant Mare Urine (PMU) is used to produce Conjugated Equine Estrogen (CEE) which is used for Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for women experiencing menopause. Pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer Inc., is the largest producer of HRT drugs, and the largest contributor to the PMU industry. Premarin®, Prempro® and Duavee® (formerly known as Aprela®) are just some of the products manufactured by Pfizer for HRT.

The PMU industry as a whole is inherently cruel, and PMU Farms are notorious for the brutal treatment of pregnant mares and their foals. For 5 to 6 months out of the mares 11 month pregnancy, they are confined to stalls so small that they cannot turn around or take more than a step in any direction. Mares are impregnated and forced to wear rubber urine collection bags at all times or catheters which are held in place with movement restricting body straps which causes chafing and lesions. Their water intake is monitored and regulated to ensure they produce maximum estrogen-rich urine. They are deprived from normal equine behavior, such as grooming themselves and lying down comfortably. Once the foals are born and weaned, foals are torn away from the mothers and they are immediately impregnated again and forced to live the same cycle for approximately 12 years. Some of the female foals are raised to become PMU mares and forced to endure the same torture as their mothers, or they are sent to slaughter along with the males as they are considered nothing more than a byproduct of the PMU industry.

At the height of CEE production in North America in 2003, there were over 400 PMU Farms in Canada and the US, which housed 35,000 to 40,000 PMU mares. Pfizer (Wyeth before the acquisition in 2009) started moving operations to China in 2004, and then moved almost all remaining operations in 2010 because of the public outrage over PMU Farms in North America. China has no animal welfare laws to protect these animals. They have been doomed to a life of incarceration and torture, unless we can work together to ban them. Today, there are only 20 to 30 Farms left in Canada, and none remain in the US. Pfizer decided to move to a culture that is more accepting of animal suffering, and out of the spotlight of public scrutiny here in North America. It is difficult to estimate how many PMU Farms are operational in China, as the information is not readily available. However, since Pfizer has indicated their plans for future growth in the Premarin® family of drugs, one can only logically deduce that there are even more now than ever before.

The 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) – a major landmark study – concluded that the use of PMU drugs increases the risks of breast cancer, heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, blood clots and dementia. Many doctors in the United States and Canada stopped prescribing PMU drugs once the dangers were fully known. However, Pfizer (and Wyeth before it) already knew of these dangers and began moving production abroad where local regulations are more lax and there are significantly less FDA inspectors available to monitor production. Reportedly, this not only results in significantly more horrific conditions for the mares but also less oversight in the manufacturing of an already dangerous drug.

The use of CEE in HRT drugs is controversial, as Big Pharma spends millions to hide the atrocities committed upon horses and the vast number sent to slaughter. But another critical fact is the health risk to women. Pfizer continues to market these drugs despite the fact that CEE-derived medications such as Premarin® and Prempro® are listed as "known human carcinogens” by the National Toxicology Program as well as the World Health Organization. Drugs containing CEEs are not well tolerated by the human body and pose serious cancer and cardiovascular risks among others. Pfizer continues to push their newest HRT drug Duavee® (previously Aprela®) without sufficient studies to validate the efficacy from a safety aspect, which contains the same health risks. These drugs contain bazedoxifene, which has yet to receive FDA approval due to increased risks of deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and retinal vein thrombosis. Duavee® is yet another dangerous drug that has been rushed to market to turn profits at the expense of patients just like its predecessors.

Given the great achievements of the pharmaceutical industry over the last few decades, we wonder why an industry giant such as Pfizer, self-described as "the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company", is not using the most innovative and state-of-the-art methodology in developing safer and more effective drugs, but instead persists with decades-old technology that relies on the increasingly unpopular and detrimental use of animals. It is common knowledge that genetic engineering currently enables scientists to synthesize natural hormones found in the human body. Through recombinant DNA techniques, bacteria have been created that are capable of manufacturing human insulin, human interferon, human growth hormone, and human follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) for example – why not estrogens? E. Coli may lack the basic machinery required for steroid synthesis but the literature indicates that there are other host micro-organisms that function to bring about hydroxylation, a critical step in the synthesis of steroids with effective biological activity.

Overall drugs containing CEEs are not well tolerated by the human body and pose serious cancer and cardiovascular risks among others. The manufacture of exact replicas of human estrogens using this technology would not only serve to reduce some of the uncertainties associated with the risks of HRT but also resolve issues related to negative press releases, class-action lawsuits and animal rights advocates concerned with drug safety and animal abuse. Consumers are more cynical than ever before, seeking safe and ethically produced goods....