“The FDA has been approving more and more drugs with limited data.”PharmedOut’s Judy Butler, Caroline Renko and Adriane Fugh-Berman publish op-ed in Baltimore Sun: Patient advocacy groups should stay out of drug approvals
baltimoresun.com/2024/05/10/pat…

Why does medicine shoot the messenger when things go wrong?
A conversation with Carl Elliott
Wednesday, May 15, 7 pm EDT
Weblink: cfe.torontomu.ca/events/why-doe…
Facebook: facebook.com/events/3632320…

3% of Native American newborns diagnosed with syphilis. Pleas for Federal help have gone unanswered. mmm-online.com/home/channel/s…

Amgen Plows Ahead With Costly, Highly Toxic Cancer Dosing Despite FDA Challenge kffhealthnews.org/MTg0MTI2Mw via @kffhealthnews

Opioid Manufacturer Endo Health Solutions Inc. Ordered to Pay $1.536B In Criminal Fines and Forfeiture for Distributing Misbranded Opioid Medication fda.gov/inspections-co…

Mindfulness training doesn’t help teens mental health. Disease labels may not either. nytimes.com/2024/05/06/hea…

Doctors prescribe 4% more cancer drugs after drug rep visits but patients didn’t have better mortality outcomes says NBER study. Researchers found these “marketing payments induce physicians to expand treatment to healthier patients.”

tinyurl.com/58m4v2v5

Most surrogate markers used as primary end points in clinical trials to support U.S. FDA approval of drugs treating nononcologic chronic diseases lacked high-strength evidence of associations with clinical outcomes from published meta-analyses. ja.ma/4aIRFsR

FDA is speeding approval of more drugs with less research and could be putting patients at risk. Gregg Gonsalves: “The idea is not to have more drugs. It is to have drugs that work.”

tinyurl.com/ytntrbrj

New BMJ study finds antipsychotic drug use in dementia patients linked to many harmful side effects including greater risk for stroke (61%), breaking a bone (43%), heart attack (28%) and heart failure (27%).

theguardian.com/society/2024/a…

Medicare estimates program costs of $3.5 billion for Leqembi in 2025. The Alzheimer’s drug has questionable benefits and significant risks. Ameet Sarpatwari: “What are we, as taxpayers, willing to spend on this drug with limited resources?”
tinyurl.com/5h62fsba

323 active drug shortages in US, including oxytocin, Rho(D) immune globulin, standard-of-care chemotherapy, pain and sedation meds.
statnews.com/pharmalot/2024…

Ten members of FDA advisory committee reviewing Abbott’s cardiac device had financial conflicts of interest reports KFF Health News. “The Abbott payments illustrate the reach of medical industry money and the limits of transparency at the FDA.”
tinyurl.com/ym8m7379

Experts call for FDA to pull back test claiming to predict risk for opioid use disorder (OUD) after controversial approval: “The harmful consequences of an invalid genetic test for OUD are clear.”

washingtonpost.com/health/2024/04…

“Limiting the supply and prescription of opioids for chronic pain is crucial to addressing the opioid epidemic” respond Adriane Fugh-Berman and Gary Franklin to NYT op-ed.

tinyurl.com/2trhfxm4

10 doctors on FDA panel for Abbott heart device had financial ties to the company nbcnews.com/health/health-… via @nbcnews

A Japanese study found that between 2017 and 2021 'all 15 leading internal medicine subspecialty societies in Japan received a total of $86.1 million' from pharmaceutical companies .jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

PharmedOut op-ed by Renko, Butler, and Fugh-Berman on patient advocacy groups' role in the approval of Relyvrio. “Pressuring the FDA to approve useless therapies is not ethical advocacy.”

tinyurl.com/2mvzdfuf

Study: Few FDA-approved targeted cancer drugs meet ESMO benefit benchmarks | RAPS raps.org/news-and-artic…

A.L.S. Drug Relyvrio Will Be removed From Market. nytimes.com/2024/04/04/hea…