2022 News

PharmedOut In the News, 2022

December 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's December fodder: Pharma's Payout to Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants

November 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's November fodder: Selling drugs and patients' bodies

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in MedPage Today: "In Many Ways, Industry Payments to NPs, PAs Competitive With Physicians." She said, "Although physicians have become more wary of drug reps and industry offerings, APNs and PAs are behind in terms of this awareness."

• November 7th: Emily Alagha MS and Dr. Fugh-Berman published "Pharmaceutical marketing: the example of drug samples" in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice.

• November 10th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in Celine Castronuovo's article in Bloomberg Law, "Preterm Birth Drug Makena Ignites Argument Over Health Equity". PharmedOut's white paper on improving the FDA was also mentioned. Dr. Fugh-Berman commented “The whole accelerated approval process has to be revamped in order to protect patients."

• November 14th: The samples paper was featured in Medical Marketing and Media in Marc Iskowitz' article "Paper reopens debate over drug sampling". It was also covered by Richard Sears in Mad in America: "Drug Samples Increase Healthcare Costs and Compromise Patient Safety" (November 15th). 

• November 19th: Patricia Bencivenga and Dr. Fugh-Berman published, "Depriving women of this drug is good public health," an article on Makena (an expensive and ineffective treatment for preterm birth) on KevinMD.

• November 26th: PharmedOut Fellow Sharon Batt PhD wrote "How Big Pharma hijacked patient groups to keep drug prices high" for The Breach. A fascinating look at "how patient groups were co-opted into fighting affordable medicine" in Canada. 

• November 28th: Caroline Renko wrote PharmedOut's comment on Commercial Surveillance and Data Security, urging the Federal Trade Commission "to implement new trade regulation rules to limit negative consequences that befall consumers when companies are allowed to collect, store and utilize personal data in any way they see fit." Her comment was also quoted in Medical Marketing and Media, in "Pharma’s digital marketing in crosshairs, as FTC’s plan to curb ‘commercial surveillance’ gains steam."

October 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's October fodder:  Health Union? More like, Stealth Union  

• Dr. Fugh-Berman and Mike Wilcox published "Challenging pharma: who cares?" in the BMJ's Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. This article looks at pharma-critical organizations and how they battle pharma's "false and misleading narratives". 

• October 14th: Patricia Bencivenga and Judy Butler published an op-ed "Drug company tricks: Gaslighting the worried well into becoming the worried sick" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

• October 17th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in the Washington Post on Makena, saying "There’s no scientific debate here, the debate is between science and profit." Her quote was also featured in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (October 18th). 

• October 18th: Patricia Bencivenga and Dr. Fugh-Berman testified at an Obstetrics, Reproductive, and Urologic Drugs Advisory Committee hearing on Makena, an expensive and ineffective treatment for preterm birth. Their testimony is here, and their written comments are on the FDA's docket or can be downloaded here. 

• Also on October 18th: PharmedOut's report and webinar on "What Needs to Change at the FDA?" was covered in MedPage Today. If you missed it, the webinar is on our YouTube channel. 

• PharmedOut published our white paper "What Needs to Change at the FDA?" outlining recommendations on how to improve the regulatory procedures of the US Food and Drug Administration. Our webinar and Q&A on the report happens on October 18th. 

• October 21st: Dr. Fugh-Berman and her gardens at Georgetown University are featured in a Voice of America video, Pollinators, (at the 6:34 mark). She recommended, "Plant flowers, plant host plants, and you'll be rewarded with a plethora of insect life." 

September 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's September fodder: Does $500,000 a year for a drug make your eyes bulge? We have a drug for that...  

• September 14th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in "This is pharma’s dream’: How drugmakers are turning telehealth into a marketing gold mine" in STAT. "This is a way of making prescription drugs about as available as over-the-counter drugs," she said. 

• This month, Dr. Fugh-Berman was also quoted in "Medicare Part B Premium Dips on Alzheimer’s Drug Setback" in WebMD's Health News. Of aducanumab she said, “That one drug resulted in an increase in Medicare premiums is a warning that we should pay attention to.”

August 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's August fodder: Will California's opioid guidelines cave to industry pressure?

• August 5th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in the U.K.'s Daily Mail "Why Viagra use has grown in men under 30: Little blue pills are becoming readily available on the internet - with 20% of men in their 20s suffering from erectile dysfunction." She said, "'These are lifestyle drugs, and they have potentially serious adverse effects, and this seems like too casual a way to be obtaining them."

• August 12th: Caroline Renko and Dr. Fugh-Berman wrote a piece for Kaiser Permanente's Health Policy Institute to promote PharmedOut's Pharma Marketing Hub. 

• August 18th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was mentioned in "Pharmacies will have to pay $650.6 million for opioid crisis" in Panorama Farmaceutico. Brazil is a growing market for the opioid industry, and companies may employ similar marketing strategies in Brazil that caused the opioid epidemic in the United States. 

• This month, Dr. Fugh-Berman was awarded a grant for her gardens on Georgetown's campus! The newsletter has occasionally featured photos of the flowers and plants from these gardens. Dr. Fugh-Berman will now be collaborating with Dr. Martha Weiss and Dr. Bill Hahn on the “Plants, Pollinators and People: Unified Research-and-Teaching Gardens at Georgetown University” under this new grant.

• PharmedOut intern Ljubitca Fadic attended the Mayo Clinic Sleep Medicine conference in San Diego, California. She was able to learn more about sleep research to support her project on idiopathic hypersomnia, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), and the promotion of Xyrem and Xywav by Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

July 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's July fodder: "Have your cake and eat it too": wood pulp for weight loss

• July 6th: Simran Siddalingaiah and Dr. Fugh‐Berman's paper on patent extension techniques was covered in "Pharma’s “Evergreening” Patent Tactics Mean High Costs and Low Benefits for Consumers" in Mad in America by Tsotso Ablorh. Their original paper can be found at this link. 

• This July, Caroline Renko, Patricia Bencivenga, and Ljubitca Fadic presented at the Preventing Overdiagnosis conference at the University of Calgary. Caroline presented on "Medical science liaisons: pharma’s best kept secret," Patricia presented "Mild cognitive impairment? Forget about it!" and Ljubitca presented "Idiopathic hypersomnia: screening questionnaires, awareness campaigns, and Xywav use? Let’s sleep on it." Their abstracts were published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

June 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's June fodder: Quivering with Quviviq: New sleep drug uses the same old marketing playbook

• June 7th: Dr. Fugh-Berman debated Dr. Jeffrey Singer from the Cato Institute at the Soho Forum in New York on the origins of the opioid crisis. The debate ended in a tie, but Dr. Fugh-Berman was awarded the Soho Forum Tootsie Roll, now on display in the PharmedOut office. If you missed it, the debate can be viewed here. 

• June 9th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in "How Drugmakers Influence Our Beliefs About Mental Illness" for Medium. She explained, "Making people feel that their normal variant of eating or sleeping or feeling is abnormal is not helpful to them... It leads people to pharmacological treatments when what they're experiencing is better dealt with in non-pharmacologic means."

• June 14th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was also quoted in "Fact check: No evidence that foot pads can detoxify the body, experts say" in USA Today. She said, "Feet are not a detoxification organ." 

• Judy Butler and Dr. Fugh-Berman submitted a public comment on pimavanserin for the use of Alzheimer's disease psychosis. PharmedOut's public comment can be downloaded here. Dr. Fugh-Berman also testified at the FDA Advisory Committee meeting on June 17. Our resources on Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment are available here. 

May 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's May Fodder: McKinsey & Company: Double Agent for Purdue and FDA

• This May, Dr. Fugh-Berman co-authored an article in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease calling for the accelerated withdrawal of aducanumab. 

April 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's April Fodder: The Alliance for Aging Research: Fronting for Pharma

• April 7th: A photo of PharmedOut's counter protest of the Alliance for Aging Research's Alzheimer's rally in Washington, DC was featured in a New York Times article, "Medicare Officially Limits Coverage of Aduhelm to Patients in Clinical Trials." 

• Also on April 7th: STAT News covered our story in "Advocacy group’s advisory board members defect over Biogen Alzheimer’s drug." PharmedOut sent a letter to the Alliance for Aging Research's Scientific Advisory Board, signed by dozens of researchers, urging the board to resign over the Alliance's support for the Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm. We got 10 of 17 board members to resign! 

• April 14th: Judy Butler and Dr. Fugh-Berman submitted public comments to the Centers for Disease Control on their proposed Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids. PharmedOut's public comment can be viewed here. 

• April 15th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in the Health Day article "Who Are the New 'Patient Influencers' on Social Media?" She explained, "Patient stories and patient perspective can be important, but the perspectives that are being highlighted are the ones that back marketing goals."

• April 24th: Simran Siddalingaiah and Dr. Fugh-Berman published "Evergreened drugs or evergreened profits?" in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.

• This month, Elisa Braver PhD and Dr. Fugh-Berman wrote a letter to each member of the Alliance for Aging Research's Scientific Advisory Board, urging them to resign. Over 50 physicians, researchers and advocates co-signed the letter.

• The Alliance for Aging Research, a pharma-funded group, organized a protest opposing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) preliminary decision not to cover Aduhelm (aducanumab, an ineffective and dangerous drug for Alzheimer's disease) except in clinical trials. PharmedOut quickly organized a counter-protest to support CMS' evidence-based decision. See Social Security Works' coverage of our event on act.tv here. 

March 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's March Fodder: Let's lose the term "legitimate pain patient"

• March 10: PharmedOut's fact sheet on disease mongering was cited in a newspaper article, "Creating diseases for profit," in Free Malaysia Today.

• March 15: The Alliance for Aging Research, a pharma-funded group, organized a protest opposing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) preliminary decision not to cover Aduhelm (aducanumab, an ineffective and dangerous drug for Alzheimer's disease) except in clinical trials. PharmedOut quickly organized a counter-protest to support CMS' evidence-based decision. See Social Security Works' coverage of our event on act.tv here. 

February 2022

• Check out Judy Butler's February Fodder: "It's a trap!" A doctor and a patient duped by Pharma speak out

• February 4th: Dave Stanke, Judy Butler, and Dr. Fugh-Berman submitted a public comment to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding coverage for aducanumab. It can be viewed here on CMS's website or downloaded here. 

• February 10: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in the AP article "CDC proposed softer guidance on opioid prescriptions," by Mike Stobbe. "There was nothing wrong with the original guidelines," she said.

• February 16: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in a Kaiser Health News article, "Inside the tactical tug of war over the controversial Alzheimer's drug."

• February 17: Dr. Fugh-Berman was also quoted in, "The drug industry is working hard to get this Alzheimer's drug approved. Here's why it matters." by Trudy Lieberman for the Center for Health Journalism.

• February 20: PharmedOut's webinar "How Pharma Grooms Patients and Patient Advocacy Groups to Sell Drugs" was covered by The Lown Institute in "How some drug companies manipulate patient advocates."

January 2022

• January 10th: Judy Butler and Dr. Fugh-Berman's Health Affairs op-ed exposing WEGO health was cited and quoted in "On TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, patient influencers are remaking the drug advertising market" from the Duluth News Tribune.

• January 18: Dr. Fugh-Berman published the op-ed, "Adding common-sense clarity to muddled CDC guidance," in The Virginian-Pilot. This piece gives clear and concise COVID guidance.

• January 16: Dave Stanke and Dr. Fugh-Berman published the op-ed, "Medicare wisely declines to pay for Alzheimer's drug," in The Detroit Free Press. They applauded the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services decision to only cover Aduhelm and related drugs in clinical trials. 

• Dr. Fugh-Berman presented the "History of Pharma Marketing" for students at Tulane University School of Medicine on January 26th. 

• Also on January 26th: Dave Stanke and Dr. Fugh-Berman's op-ed, "Medicare wisely declines to pay for Alzheimer's drug," was featured in Kaiser Health News' Morning Briefing.