About the current state of the PMU industry...

This page was last updated on November 9, 2003.

On October 10, 2003, Wyeth Organics (Wyeth Inc.) started its first round of cuts in their PMU production contracts by notifying PMU farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that they'll be reducing the number of farmers who produce the urine by one-third.

The company is also reducing production at its own plant in Brandon, Manitoba. This overall downsizing by Wyeth equates to a 50% reduction of Wyeth's required number of PMU mares. We predict that this first round of cuts in PMU producing contracts will not be the last.

Demand for Premarin® has fallen off drastically since the National Institute of Health announced in October 2002 that it was halting the Women's Health Initiative HRT study due to a suspected link between hormone replacement therapy and an increase in incidence of breast cancer and other serious health risks occurring in the control group.

There's also a shift toward lower dose products for menopausal women which means less demand for the product. Federal regulators in July of 2003 approved a lower-dose 1.25 mg version of the hormone therapy treatment.

While it's statistically too early to accurately predict if this reduced dose will significantly lower the linked risks associated with the higher doses, HorseAid's consulting medical researchers think that it will not. The lower doses may manifest the linked risks to a lower percentage of women, but even one woman put at risk is one woman too many.

Wyeth is offering PMU producers compensation packages, so producers can avoid taking drastic measures, and intends to honor its current contractual obligations for the 2003-2004 season. Contracts vary with each ranch, but generally, the gross revenue from pregnant mare urine ranges from around $2,000 to $2,500 per mare per year.

In addition to the compensation packages, Wyeth is working with the North American Equine Ranching Information Council (NAERIC) to develop and implement programs to help producers market their mares. In an effort to protect the mares from slaughter, the council is considering a transportation subsidy to move the mares out of the pee provinces and into "legitimate" horse sales in Eastern Canada and the U.S.

Wyeth's second-quarter earnings show worldwide net revenues for its Premarin family of drugs fell 38.2 per cent to $276.6 million, compared to $447.3 million for the second quarter 2002. Revenues for the Premarin family drug franchise is estimated to decrease to $1.2 billion this year compared to $2.1 billion in 2000.

On October 23, 2003, Wyeth announced that because it had set aside an additional $2 billion to increase its reserve related to class-action diet drug litigation, the company was recording a net income loss of $426 million or a net loss of $0.32 earnings per share for its third-quarter, compared to $1.4 billion net income or $1.05 per share in the same quarter last year.

Wyeth shares fell about 7 percent Friday, a day after a Texas jury awarded $1.3 million in damages to a woman who suffered heart damage after taking the company's diet drugs, part of the banned fen-phen combination.

Wyeth shares closed down $2.98 at $39.72 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday. The shares are down from about $50 in July 2002, when the Women's Health Initiative study found Wyeth's hormone replacement drug Prempro increased risk of heart attack, stroke, dangerous blood clots and breast cancer.

The current round of cuts, with its ensuing 50% reduction of PMU producing mares, is a two-fold issue. On the one hand, it means that 50% of the mares used in PMU production lines are now freed from the tiny stalls they spent six months of the year tethered to, and a reduction by 50% of the foals they produced that were at risk of going to slaughter. On the other hand, it means 50% of the mares now have to be dispersed. It's these "disposal" mares and their foals that are at risk at this point.

HorseAid believes that Wyeth will indeed honor its contractual obligations, and devise several safeguards to prevent PMU farmers from "double-dipping" in the performance of these contractual obligations (i.e., farmers being paid for the upkeep of the PMU mares, and then selling them for a quick profit to the highest bidder while still under contract to Wyeth).

Eventually, the contracts will end, and the mares (and their foals) will have to find new homes. This can only be successfully accomplished with the cooperation of Wyeth, the PMU farmers, equine rescue groups willing to take on this enormous project, and possibly NAERIC. NAERIC's position is still unclear at this time as to how diligently it will monitor the dispersal and sale of these horses (under Wyeth's no known slaughter sales mandate).

What we need at this point, is to understand that without the full cooperation of all the above entities in the mix, much more than just the PMU industry will die because of the cuts.

What we don't need, is individuals and groups running around yelling "20,000 pregnant mares are now going to slaughter" and other such inflammatory statements. This just adds a lot of unnecessary confusion and misinformation to an already volatile situation.

As of November 3, 2003, there still has been no significant increase in the number of mares or foals going to feedlots or slaughter sources. Any individual or group saying otherwise, has a vested profit motivated interest in saying so.

In the period between October 11th - 31st, approximately 297 horses have passed through the mid-Eastern Canadian border crossings into the U.S. by commercial carrier, all seem destined for private sale, not slaughter. A few are headed for rescue/relocation facilities, and the others, including some quality warmbloods, to individuals and non-PMU ranches. This is still a below average figure for a roughly three week period this time of year. An October 17th query of two of the largest CN auction houses revealed no noticeable reduction in selling prices.

In that same October 11th - 31st time period, 1,206 U.S. horses have been imported into mid-Eastern Canada via commercial carrier headed for the Canadian slaughter plants. This is a slightly below average figure for a roughly three week period (2003 averages have been 479 per week). There is no significant importation or export of slaughter-bound horses from the Western Canadian borders.

While the alarmists have been focusing on any number of Canadian PMU horses going to slaughter, the above tallies clearly show it is still the U.S. horses that are at greatest risk. Shouldn't they be concerned about ALL horses?

What puzzles us most, is the apparent surprise at Wyeth's move that so many PMU farmers expressed. Judging from the volume of email HorseAid has received from PMU farmers over the years, surely they must have had a clue when visiting this Web site that it was never just "about the horses". Our focus has always been on both the horse issue and women's health. What we have been predicting (and publishing) since 1988, has now come to pass. It's no surprise to us, and shouldn't be to the farmers either.

We are now receiving many emails a day basically saying that we are the reason for the PMU industry's collapse, and that xx,xxxx (pick any number) mares are now going to slaughter because of us. We didn't invent the PMU industry, and that blame should lay directly on the companies that did.

Consider this, our own primary research taken from Canadian Ag records (office visits), show that between 1985 and 1998, an average of 80,000 horses died each year directly because of the PMU industry. That's over 1 million horses sacrificed to make a drug that has now shown itself to be unsafe and whose very effectiveness is in controversy.

We consevetly estimate (based on National Institute of Health and other studies) in that same time period, between 150,00 and 250,000 women have died because of the use of PMU based products (mostly due to breast cancers linked to HRT medication). These unfortunate women were taking a drug whose origin they did not know, with health consequences that were never fully explained to them. These women are not just statistics, they were someone's daughter, wife, sister, aunt, or mother. If it had been the daughter, wife, sister, aunt, or mother, of these email writers, would they still be sending us blame mail?

What we need now is a viable plan to ensure that these "dispersal" horses don't end up in a worse situation than they were in, not accusations and blame.

HorseAid has always been committed to reforming the PMU industry and its eventual end. If you care about horses, and the associated health risks that women are exposed to in taking PMU based HRT medications, then you should be similarly committed.

IGHA/HorseAid was the first organization to investigate (1986) and publish facts (1988) on the abuse of horses used in the production of PMU, as well as question the long term health risks that women faced in its use.