2024 News

November 2024

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was featured in a documentary by NBC 7 San Diego, “The cost of losing: The risks and rewards of weight loss drugs.” She talks about the influence that pharmaceutical companies have over advocacy groups, medical societies, and medical meetings. Dr. Fugh-Berman also emphasizes how harmful it is that pharmaceutical companies fund most of the continuing medical education that doctors receive. 

• The NBC 7 San Diego documentary on weight loss drugs also highlighted PharmedOut’s report on the FDA.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman and Judy Butler published an op-ed on November 6, “Pharma’s ethically questionable sites essentially sell drugs directly to consumers” in STAT News. “It’s what the pharmaceutical industry has always wanted: They have long viewed physicians as inconvenient barriers between the company and their customers,” they write.

• PharmedOut sent a letter to the Federation of State Medical Boards on November 8th demanding that the federation remove their CME accreditation from a menopause documentary rife with misinformation. Signed by 16 researchers, clinicians and women's health experts, our letter counters false and dangerous statements about menopause and hormone therapy made in the documentary.

• November 21st: A STAT News article by Ed Silverman, “A documentary about menopause has ‘misinformation’ and shouldn’t be used to educate docs, critics say,” covered the story of the inaccurate menopause documentary and our effort to keep misinformation out of physician’s education. 

October 2024

• Judy Butler and Dr. Fugh-Berman published an op-ed on October 1, “Dangerous fentanyl ‘candy’ is finally off the market. It fueled the opioid crisis” in the Kansas City Star. The article also appeared in the Miami Herald, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Bellingham Herald, Raleigh News & Observer, and other outlets.

• October 8th: STAT News quoted Dr. Fugh-Berman on Biogen promoting awareness of postpartum depression to sell Zurzuvae (zuranolone). “Efforts to publicize a disease that are going to expand access to or prescriptions for a drug are part of a company’s marketing, no matter what they say,” she said. 

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in the MedPage Today article, “Peer reviewers have financial conflicts, too” on October 10. She commented, “Just because something's common, it shouldn't be normalized, and in this case, this really should be vilified rather than normalized." 

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was also quoted in an article by Mary Chris Jaklevic for the Association of Health Care Journalists on October 15 about a highly praised sickle cell therapy that is “now suspected of harming patients.” She warned that “No drug should be called ‘transformative,’ ‘landmark,’ or ‘life-changing’ until it’s been used in many people for sufficient time to identify harms.” 

September 2024

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was also quoted in Being Patient on September 4 in the article “Do You Have Alzheimer’s? New Diagnostic Criteria Might Change the Answer.” She questioned the validity of diagnosing people without symptoms of cognitive impairment with Alzheimer’s disease.

August 2024

• Caroline also testified at the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) public meeting on August 1st. Caroline argued that continuing medical education (CME) should be regulated as advertising and that this is a consumer protection issue. You can watch her testimony here at the 1:25:40 mark.

• PharmedOut’s Research Fellow, Judy Butler MS and Dr. Fugh-Berman published an op-ed on August 20, “Lilly's misleading marketing of Alzheimer's medicine,” in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in The New York Times article, “A Popular Weight Loss Drug Is Getting a Price Cut,” on August 27. She cautioned against the risks of weight loss drugs to older patients, saying “Older people do not need to lose muscle.”

• Endpoint News quoted Dr. Fugh-Berman in an August 27 newsletter article on direct-to-consumer drug sales. “When patients go to a [web]site looking for a particular drug for a self-diagnosed problem, that’s not medical care,” she said.

July 2024

• July 1st: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in “New criteria for diagnosing Alzheimer's are criticized by experts” from CNN. She said, “The Alzheimer’s Association should lose all credibility by issuing guidelines that label perfectly normal people as having Alzheimer’s … If followed, these guidelines will ruin the lives of tens of thousands of people who will be misinformed that they have dementia.”

• July 1st: Dr. Fugh-Berman was also quoted in “New criteria for diagnosing, staging Alzheimer’s stirs controversy” in McKnight's Long-Term Care News.

• July 2nd: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in “ADHD Medication: The Shortage Is Getting Worse” in Psychology Today. She explained, “There’s real telehealth, and there’s fake telehealth,” and that fake telehealth companies are “companies who are just bypassing clinicians to provide drugs to patients.”

• This July, Judy Butler, Patricia Bencivenga, and Dr. Fugh-Berman’s FDA comment was cited in “Side Effects of the New Alzheimer’s Drugs” in MedShadow.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in CNN in “In new Alzheimer’s criteria, some see progress while others fear profit-driven ‘diagnostic creep’”. She said, “The Alzheimer’s Association should lose all credibility by releasing guidelines labeling perfectly normal people as having Alzheimer’s disease ... If followed, these guidelines will ruin the lives of tens of thousands of people who will be misinformed that they have dementia. The only entities that gain from this travesty are the pharmaceutical companies that make drugs for Alzheimer’s and the Alzheimer’s Association, which is preying on fear."

June 2024

• Dr. Fugh-Berman presented “What Needs to Change at the FDA?” on June 6th at the Doctors for America 2024 National Leadership Conference.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in The BMJ in “How an opioid giant deployed a playbook for moulding doctors’ minds” on June 10. She said, “creating the term ‘pseudoaddiction’ and distorting the terms ‘tolerance’ and ‘dependence’ were strategies that distracted physicians from noticing their patients were addicted.”

• June 10th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in The BMJ in “How an opioid giant deployed a playbook for moulding doctors’ minds” by Sergio Sismondo and Maud Bernisson. She said, “creating the term ‘pseudoaddiction’ and distorting the terms ‘tolerance’ and ‘dependence’ were strategies that distracted physicians from noticing their patients were addicted.”

• Our Research Fellow, Judy Butler MS, testified in opposition to FDA approval for donanemab at the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee Meeting on June 10th. Our written comment can be found here.

• Judy Butler’s testimony on donanemab was also quoted in The Washington Post (June 10th), Politico (June 11th), and Morning Star.

• June 10th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was also quoted in "Opioid giant's tactics to influence doctors revealed in court documents" in Medical Xpress. She said, "creating the term pseudoaddiction and distorting the terms tolerance and dependence were strategies that distracted physicians from noticing their patients were addicted."

• Caroline Renko, PharmedOut’s Project Manager, testified at the FDA Listening Session on Advisory Committee Meetings on June 13th. Her testimony was quoted in Pink Sheet and you can watch her testimony on here on YouTube.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman debated Dr. Michael Ybarra, an emergency department physician who is Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of PhRMA, at George Washington University School of Medicine on June 28th.

May 2024

• Judy Butler, Caroline Renko and Adriane Fugh-Berman published an op-ed “Patient advocacy groups should stay out of drug approvals” in The Baltimore Sun on May 10.

• PharmedOut’s article on pimavanserin was featured in “Pharma Pushed “Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis” to Boost Drug Sales, Researchers Report” in Mad in America on May 14. 

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was a guest on the GeriPal podcast, “How Pharma Invents Diseases,” on May 16, 2024. Listen here!

• PharmedOut hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill on “What Needs to Change at the FDA?” The panelists, Sharon Batt PhD, John Powers MD and Adriane Fugh-Berman MD were joined by Liza Vertinsky JD, PhD for a conversation on regulatory issues at the Food and Drug Administration on May 21st.

• May 30th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in MedPage Today in “Social Media Physician Endorsements Raise Prickly Ethical Questions.” Of physicians who endorsed drugs on social media she said, [its] "surprising that some physicians are comfortable with a role more commonly associated with drug reps than healthcare providers."

April 2024

• Don't forget to check out Judy Butler’s April Fodder: Oprah showcases obesity and semaglutide on TV special

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in “Drug, Device Makers Paid Physicians $12 Billion in Just Under a Decade” in Medscape on April 2nd. Of gifts to physicians she said, “Really, this should be banned. Doctors should not be allowed to get gifts from pharmaceutical companies."

• Dr. Fugh-Berman and Dr. Gary Franklin wrote a Letter to the Editor on “Regulating opioid prescriptions” in The New York Times on April 6th.

• Former PharmedOut intern Daisy Daeschler MSW, MS and Dr. Fugh-Berman published our latest article on invented diseases: “Parkinson's Disease Psychosis and the Marketing of Pimavanserin” in the International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services on April 9th.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman also wrote a Letter to the Editor in response to “Management of menopause” in Australian Prescriber on April 23rd. In it, she writes “The authors describe quality of life as an established benefit of MHT, but there is no evidence that MHT improves quality of life unless a woman is having severe hot flushes.”

• Dr. Fugh-Berman will be presenting on pharmaceutical marketing to physicians at the Sociedad Chilena de Medicina y Nutrición Preventiva International Conference in Nutrition and Medicine on April 25th. 

March 2024

• Don't forget to check out Judy Butler’s March Fodder: Proposed bill on off-label promotion gets pulled

• Dr. Fugh-Berman and Judy Butler’s Bioethics Forum Essay was cited in The New York Times’ “Apparently Healthy, but Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?” on March 4.

• March 6th: Pharmanipulation’s latest episode, “The First One's Free and Then You're Hooked: The Problem with Free Drug Samples” with Dr. Shahram Ahari is available! Click here to listen.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman presented “How Pharma Invents Diseases” for Georgetown University Medical Center’s Pharmacology and Physiology Seminar Series on March 21st.

• Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in “Industry Payments to Physicians Topped $12 Billion Over Nearly a Decade” in MedPage Today on March 28. She explained, “Physicians should not consider industry a partner: pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers are beholden to their shareholders, while physicians have a fiduciary responsibility to their patients."

• Caroline Renko, Judy Butler, and Dr. Fugh-Berman published an op-ed, “Relyvrio debacle shows why FDA should stand its ground against conflicted advocacy groups” in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on March 31st.

February 2024

• Don't forget to check out Judy Butler’s February Fodder: Painful Presentation: KOL gives problematic lecture on opioids

• February 7th: PharmedOut catalyzed the coverage of this story in STAT which looks at how an industry-paid key opinion leader gave a presentation full of opioid marketing messages to medical students last fall.  

January 2024

• January 3rd: PharmedOut's comment to the FDA on the Research, Abuse, Diversion, and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS) system was featured in “Groups Blast FDA's Opioid Abuse Surveillance Proposal” in MedPage Today.

• January 5th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in “As Eli Lilly Wades Into Telehealth for Weight Loss, Doctors Are Wary” in The New York Times. She said “This isn’t medicine… Medicine shouldn’t be a consumer good, and treatments shouldn’t be commodities.” Her quote was reposted several times including in Fox Business, Journal Txopela, InfosrkClub, and 360Medical.

• January 17th: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in “More patients are getting their meds online. Big Pharma wants in on the action” in STAT. She said “You want to establish a relationship and provide services in such a way that it doesn’t look like you’re just selling a drug… But really, you’re just selling a drug.”

• January 31st: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in “Sidney Wolfe: public health leader who campaigned for reform across the US health system” in BMJ. She said “When Sid walked into the room at an FDA meeting, industry representatives would shudder… He was very effective.”