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She was just 17 when she met her future husband. She went on to guide his career and became an avid preservationist of vernacular architecture. Betsy Wyeth was the model for her husband’s 1966 painting “Maga’s Daughter.” Maga was a nickname for her mother. She played a major role in his career, saying, “It’s like I’m a director and I had the greatest actor in the world.” Betsy James Wyeth, the indomitable widow, collaborator and muse of the painter Andrew Wyeth, died on April 21 at her home in Chadds Ford, Pa. She was 98. She had been in declining...

Jan. 24, 2006 — A U.S. Food and Drug Administration committee voted 11-7 today to recommend that certain over-the-counter asthma inhalers, such as Primatene Mist, be taken off the market over concerns that they contain chlorofluorocarbons that could harm the environment. Chlorofluorocarbons have been associated with depleting Earth's ozone layer, which can in turn contribute to global warming and skin cancer. But another issue at hand, according to health experts, is that Primatene Mist may do patients more harm than good. The recommendation now means that the FDA will vote whether to keep over-the-counter inhalers on the market, said FDA...

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals is headquartered in Madison, NJ and is one of the largest research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare product companies in the world. It is also, by way of Centrum vitamins, one of David Letterman’s sponsors for The Late Show with David Letterman. Every Centrum vitamin you buy helps keep the lights on in the Ed Sullivan Theater, where on June 8th 2009 David Letterman treated statutory rape as a laughing matter when he “joked” that 14 year-old Willow Palin, the only Palin daughter who attended a baseball game that day, was “knocked up” by 33 year-old Alex Rodriguez of the...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a $6.7 million jury award to a musician who lost her arm because of a botched injection of an anti-nausea medication. The court brushed away a plea for limiting lawsuits against drug makers. In a 6-3 decision, the court rejected Wyeth Pharmaceuticals' claim that federal approval of its Phenergan anti-nausea drug should have shielded the company from lawsuits like the one filed by Diana Levine of Vermont.... The decision is the second this term to reject business groups' arguments that federal regulation effectively pre-empts consumer complaints under state law. A Vermont jury agreed with...

The board of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has agreed to terms of a deal to take over Wyeth for $68 billion, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Monday. Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, would acquire Wyeth for a combination of $26 billion in cash as well as loans and stock, the newspaper said, citing people involved in the negotiations. The report said five banks have agreed to lend Pfizer $22.5 billion to finance the deal, making it the first major merger in months that has drawn the support of Wall Street. The acquisition is expected to be announced...

NEW YORK (AP) — Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, may be seeking to buy rival Wyeth in a deal that could be valued at more than $60 billion, the biggest in recent memory.The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the companies have been in talks for months, although the report said any deal is not near completion and the state of the global markets could undo any plans.Such a deal could cheer investors and analysts who have been pushing Pfizer — struggling with flat revenue, diminishing returns on research and looming generic competition to the world's top-selling drug —...

PHILADELPHIA -- Artist Andrew Wyeth, who portrayed the hidden melancholy of the people and landscapes of Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in works such as "Christina's World," died early Friday. He was 91. Wyeth died in his sleep at his home in the Philadelphia suburb of Chadds Ford, according to Hillary Holland, a spokeswoman for the Brandywine River Museum.

RENO, Nev. - A jury levied a $134.5 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Wyeth in a lawsuit filed by three Nevada women who claimed the company's hormone replacement drugs caused their breast cancer. It was the largest award to date against the Madison, New Jersey-based company, which faces about 5,300 similar lawsuits across the country in state and federal courts. "These are very large numbers for compensatory damages," said Howard Erichson, a law professor at Seton Hall University. "It has to be troubling for Wyeth because dollar figures like these suggest the jury entirely accepted the plaintiff's version of the...

TRENTON, N.J. - Women looking for a simple way to avoid their menstrual period could soon have access the first birth control pill designed to let women suppress monthly bleeding indefinitely. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expect to announce approval Tuesday for Lybrel, a drug from Wyeth which would be the first pill to be taken continuously. Lybrel, a name meant to evoke "liberty," would be the fourth new oral contraceptive that doesn't follow the standard schedule of 21 daily active pills, followed by seven sugar pills — a design meant to mimic a woman's monthly cycle....

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials warned parents and doctors Tuesday not to give drugs that contain promethazine hydrochloride to children younger than 2, citing seven cases of death linked to use of the antihistamine. The Food and Drug Administration said in a safety alert that beyond the deaths, it also has received 22 reports of severe breathing problems associated with use of the allergy drug, all in children younger than 2. The drug, also known as promethazine HCl, is sold by Wyeth under the brand name Phenergan as well as in various generic versions. The warning covers all...

PROTECT YOUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE COMPOUNDED BIO-IDENTICAL HORMONE MEDICATIONS THE FACTS: Recently, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, maker of Premarin & Prempro, (drugs derived from Pregnant Mares Urine – yes, horses pee) filed a Citizen’s Petition with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) asking the FDA to impose harmful restrictions on the compounding and dispensing of Bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). (Bio-identical hormones are manufactured to have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your own body.) This petition would eliminate the availability of compounded bio-identical hormones, which are prescribed by healthcare providers and prepared by pharmacists, to meet the unique...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats on Wednesday introduced legislation that would repeal a law that gives vaccine, drug and medical device makers broad protection against lawsuits in a public health or bioterror emergency. Democrats generally agree there should be some legal protections for certain vaccines but say the Republican version defined health emergency too broadly and did not compensate people who were injured. The liability provision, strongly favored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, was added to a defense bill enacted in December. Democrats would have an uphill struggle trying to repeal it.

In a breathtaking act of bravado, Wyeth is trying to take away your right to access bioidentical hormones and compounding pharmacies by enlisting so-called women’s and physician groups like The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG which is funded in part by Wyeth), North American Menopause Society (NAMS) and The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA also a 'partner' of Wyeth) which have become nothing more than covert "fronts" for the pharmaceutical industry. In October 2005 Wyeth filed a citizen petition with the FDA essentially asking for elimination of the compounding of bioidentical hormone option for women of all ages....

After a delay of more than a year, the Food and Drug Administration has approved publication of new patient warnings for a potentially risky heart drug that millions of Americans are taking.

Just saw an interview with the widower of a woman who apparently died from a lung disease supposedly caused by a diet drug produced by Wyeth (I didn't hear the words "Fen-Phen" ...so I'm not sure if it's related. Anyway, the story indicated that the judgement awarded was $1 billion - which far exceeds Texas' cap on punative damages.