WBUR spoke with Urato — an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham — to hear what it was like to stand up against the status quo, and what he learned from the experience.What convinced you to raise your voice against this popular drug and say,"Wait, something’s wrong here"?
"I thought, 'This is really weak science to justify injecting a whole bunch of women with a synthetic chemical compound.'""It was a combination of things.
"It was challenging. There was basically a scientific consensus that Makena was the standard of care. Everybody kind of jumped on board. A lot of colleagues I talked to didn't understand how weak the scientific foundation was for the drug. "But I also feel bad because women that have had a prior preterm birth — and are at risk of another preterm birth — have no medications to help prevent it. It's an awful place to be in. As a physician, you want to be able to offer these patients something. And now it's clear that there's nothing.
"I think it’s very unlikely that we’ll come up with a magic bullet for preterm delivery with a single pharmaceutical. It’s unlikely because the causes of preterm birth are so multifactorial.
AdamUrato1 Congratulations!