Sidney M. Wolfe - Biography

Biography

After earning his medical degree at Case Western University, Cleveland, Ohio, Wolfe completed an internship and residency in internal medicine. Beginning in 1966 he did research on aspects of blood-clotting and alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health. He met consumer advocate Ralph Nader in Washington, D.C. at a meeting of the American Patients Association, began advising Nader on health problems in the United States, and helped in the recruitment of medical student volunteers who worked for Nader. Wolfe co-founded the consumer lobbying organization Health Research Group with Nader in 1971 and has been its Director ever since. Since 1995 he has been an Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

For more than 30 years, Wolfe campaigned to have propoxyphene (Darvon, Darvocet) removed from the American market, because it can cause heart arrhythmias. In 2009, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel recommended that it be withdrawn from the market. The recommendation to ban the drug was ultimately not upheld and instead manufacturers were required to place additional warning labels on packaging. In 2009, Wolfe was appointed to the FDA's Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee. On November 19, 2010, the FDA recommended against continued prescribing and use of propoxyphene.

Other drugs that Wolfe has campaigned against include Yaz, Yasmin, Phenacetin, Oraflex, Zomax, Vioxx, Baycol and many others.

Wolfe has been interviewed on television by Phil Donahue, Barbara Walters, Bill Moyers, and Oprah Winfrey. He writes for the Huffington Post.

Wolfe is currently a member of the Society for General Internal Medicine.