2021 News
PharmedOut In the News - 2021
November 2021
November 15: Research Associate Dave Stanke and Dr. Fugh-Berman published, "Cover hearing aids, not questionable Alzheimer's drug," in The Chicago Tribune.
November 16: Dr. Fugh-Berman was a guest on Chicago's WGN Radio 720, addressing Aduhelm and how hearing loss can lead to cognitive decline. Her segment can be streamed here.
November 22: "Targeting Black and Hispanic communities for dementia drugs," by Caroline Renko and Naisa Rahman was published in the Washington Times. The op-ed exposes how Biogen is targeting Black and Latinx populations for Aduhelm (aducanumab) even though the drug wasn't tested in these populations.
November 26: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in, "Should Doctors Be Embarrassed by TV's 'Dopesick'?" in MedPage Today.
September 2021
September: Dr. Fugh-Berman was a guest on the AMA Journal of Ethics podcast episode, "Ethics Talk: Medical Device Representatives in the Surgical Suite."
September 17: Judy Butler's op-ed, "Caution warranted before using new Alzheimer's drug," exposed marketing messages and misleading claims in Biogen's "educational" website, targeting physicians, on mild cognitive impairment.
August 2021
August 6: Dr. Fugh-Berman was a guest on Connecticut Public Radio’s Where We Live episode, “Opioid Use Disorder: A Growing Epidemic Within An Epidemic.” In this episode, she explained the role of patient advocacy groups in opioid marketing, and dentists' opioid prescription habits
August 21: Dr. Fugh-Berman was interviewed for this story in Kaiser Health News that exposed the close relationships between medical device sales representatives and surgeons.
May 2021
May 26: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in a BMJ article by Paul Thacker which questioned if the disclosures given by members on national COVID-19 vaccine advisory panels in the US and the UK were adequate.
April 2021
April 16: Dr. Joel Lexchin and Dr. Fugh-Berman published an article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine on why the Physician Payments Sunshine Act has not changed physician, consumer, or patient behavior and how disclosure is not enough to address industry relationships in medicine. The article was also covered by Mad in America.
April 2: Dr. Fugh-Berman was quoted in Medium in an article about drugs aimed at increasing female libido. She stated, “The main effect of the two drugs that have been approved for low libido is sedation. If you are unhappy with your sex life or distressed about your sex life and you take a sedative, you maybe might be less distressed about it, but that’s not really getting to the core issue.”
February 2021
February 25: Judy Butler's column, Purdue’s most successful strategy no one is talking about was translated into Spanish and featured in Salud y Fármacos' bulletin. Salud y Fármacos is an international non-profit organization that promotes access and the appropriate use of pharmaceuticals to Spanish-speaking populations.
January 2021
January 28: Medscape also published an article on the novel US family residency programs study: "When asked how these trends compare to residencies in other specialties, the authors said that no other research has looked at influence for one specialty over three different time periods."
January 19: STAT News published an article on Dr. Steve Brown's and Dr. Fugh-Berman's study on the interactions between pharmaceutical companies and US family residency programs.