PharmedOut

How a menopause campaign with industry ties became official US policy The removal of a warning label on menopausal hormone therapies has been hailed as a win for a US advocacy campaign. But the origins of that campaign suggest industry is laying the groundwork for a wid...

Fugh-Berman quoted in BMJ article: Menopausal hormone therapy "should not be used for disease prevention, and it should not be used to treat symptoms that are not associated with menopause. " Jennifer Block exposes Let’s Talk Menopause...
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Characteristics of Speakers at US FDA Advisory Committee Meetings on Drug Approval This cross-sectional study assesses whether the characteristics of people who spoke at US Food and Drug Administration Human Drug Advisory Committee meetings on new drug approvals were associated with...

New publication shines a light on who testifies at #FDA Advisory Committee meetings. "The FDA should consider strategies to solicit input from a broader array of stakeholders and mitigate COI among public participants."
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Free Samples: Pharma’s Best Marketing Strategy | Health Affairs Forefront The majority of promotional expenditures are invested in drug samples, one of the industry’s most important marketing tactics.

"Drug samples aren’t charity...they are intended to influence prescribing. The best way to curb pharmaceutical marketing and support evidence-based, cost-effective treatments is to ban drug samples." Butler et. al in
www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...

Will Pharma’s Direct-to-Patient Push Disintermediate Wholesalers? | PharmExec As leading drugmakers launch direct-to-patient platforms with steep discounts and digital care bundles, a new channel dynamic is emerging that gives manufacturers greater control of patient engagement...

“The direction of travel is clear: Pharma is moving closer to the patient.” Will Pharma’s Direct-to-Patient Push Disintermediate Wholesalers? | PharmExec
www.pharmexec.com/view/pharma-...

Millions of Kids Are on ADHD Pills. For Many, It’s the Start of a Drug Cascade. Powerful psychotropic drugs are often the next step, even though their combined effects in young children haven’t been studied closely. ‘I was living in a body hijacked by the medication.’

Millions of Kids Are on ADHD Pills. For Many, It’s the Start of a Drug Cascade. - WSJ
www.wsj.com/health/welln...

Big Pharma’s Dark Money Scores $8 Billion Bonanza The country’s top pharmaceutical lobbying group secretly gave millions to a Republican-aligned dark money group, then won billions in drug-pricing exemptions.

Big Pharma’s Dark Money Scores $8 Billion Bonanza
www.levernews.com/big-pharmas-...

Analgesic Differences in Males and Females After Third Molar Surgery This prespecified subgroup analysis of a randomized clinical trial investigates noninferiority for pain relief, treatment effects, and patient satisfaction for nonopioids vs opioids in male and female...

More evidence that ibuprofen and acetaminophen are better than opioids for dental pain... jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The many problems with the FDA’s big menopause announcement No, it doesn't kill women or cause divorce.

Excellent article from
@motherjones.com Menopause "doesn’t kill women or cause divorce." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Fugh-Berman on Makary's "expert" panels: “they are rife with people with conflicts of interests, include unqualified people, lack any public comment section, and are full of people spouting their often uninformed opinions rather than assessing data” insidehealthpolicy.com/share/151820

Estrogen Is Back Estrogen for menopause was demonized for decades. Now some vocal, very online doctors are saying it’s a miracle drug. The FDA appears to agree. Jennifer Block reports on the latest.

Fugh-Berman on the FDA deleting risks from menopausal hormone therapy label: “an embarrassment...They presented opinion as fact, and they misrepresented epidemiological evidence.” Jennifer Block's article in The Free Press:
www.thefp.com/p/estrogen-i...

The Hennepin Healthcare Forced Ketamine Studies, Excited Delirium, and Police Violence In the summer of 2018, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported clinical trials at Hennepin County Medical Center in which emergency medical personnel were injecting agitated individuals with ketamine, ...

Carl Elliott and Lauren Wilson on how Hennepin Healthcare ketamine studies violated federal research guidelines. Without consent, people were injected with a dangerous drug for a research study on the made-up condition "excited delirium".
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Do Your Drugs Work? A Searchable Database Use this search tool to evaluate the scientific evidence — or lack thereof — behind hundreds of FDA-approved medicines.

The Lever released a searchable database of 429 drugs approved by the FDA between 2013 and 2022 and a color-coded assessment of the scientific evidence submitted by drugmakers.
www.levernews.com/do-your-drug...

Science For Sale: How Drugmakers Captured The FDA The pharmaceutical industry spent decades manipulating the country’s top drug regulator into rubber-stamping its products. The Trump administration is making matters worse.

Great extensive article by Brownlee and Lenzer in the Lever on the long downward slide of the FDA. Fugh-Berman quoted: “Drug companies want advisory committees to listen to the emotions and not look at the science.”
www.levernews.com/science-for-...

The ‘Worst Test in Medicine’ is Driving America’s High C-Section Rate

Unreliable external fetal monitoring drives unconscionably high U.S. C-section rate ... Link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/h...

Notorious GSK paroxetine adolescent depression trial is slapped with expression of concern amid legal action A long criticised study on antidepressant use in adolescents has been flagged with an “expression of concern” by a leading academic journal after the launch of legal action.12 George Murgatroyd III, ...

Notorious GSK paroxetine adolescent depression trial is slapped with expression of concern amid legal action
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

See No Evil Why did RFK Jr. limit the reporting of certain foodborne illnesses?

Paul Offit: Raw milk advocate RFK Jr. endangers children: eliminates FDA Milk Quality Testing branch and limits CDC monitoring foodborne outbreaks. Expect an epidemic of Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter, and toxin-producing E. coli infections. pauloffit.substack.com/p/see-no-evi...

GLP-1RAs and Pay-Per-Click Direct-to-Consumer Advertising This cross-sectional study evaluates the use of direct-to-consumer advertising for a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA).

Novo spent about $7.5 million on more than 15 000 paid keywords over 2 years, generating 2.4 million paid visits to Ozempic’s website. (23% of keywords did not mention the drug).
link: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

How Private Equity Oversees the Ethics of Drug Research

For-profit IRBs approve unethical trials, and put patients' lives at risk
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/h...

The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) investigators eviscerate attacks made on the WHI's by Marty Makary's panel on menopausal hormone therapy at the FDA
www.regulations.gov/comment/FDA-...

Opinion | Will Cracking Down on Drug Ads Help Patients? There are better ways to curb rising prescription rates and drug use

"Long story short: after-the-fact warning letters won't do much to move the needle."

Read the #OpEd from Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, and Judy Butler, MS on drug advertising at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/117698?trw=no

"They know your age, your sex, your medications, your hospitalizations, your illnesses, and the zip code where you live..." Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman told Straight Arrow News on pharmaceutical companies and consumer's health care data. #pharma t.co/OoOD9isjfl

Opinion | Will Cracking Down on Drug Ads Help Patients? There are better ways to curb rising prescription rates and drug use

Opinion | Fugh-Berman and Butler in MedPage Today: ”curbing DTC drug advertising is unlikely to achieve the goal of curbing excessive prescriptions or rising drug spending.. regulatory actions should focus on banning disease awareness campaigns.”
www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

Hey, Jersey lawmakers! Get your story straight about menopause | Opinion Lawmakers must rely only on non-conflicted sources of information about healthcare and consider the implications of laws implemented without respect to evidence.

Judy Butler and A Fugh-Berman oppose proposed menopause laws: "By reflecting industry positions, media coverage not only conveys the message that there is widespread support for menopause laws, it also legitimizes the need for these laws."
www.nj.com/opinion/2025...

Confessions of an Advertising Writer: What I Learned From Your Stories—And Mine Apologies won’t undo the harm. What I’ve learned might. The current system will not change unless we organize.

Lydia Greene's moving account of how she became a whistleblower: Confessions of an Advertising Writer: What I Learned From Your Stories—And Mine - Mad In America
www.madinamerica.com/2025/09/conf...

Association between physicians' interaction with pharmaceutical companies and their clinical practices: A systematic review and meta-analysis - PubMed There is moderate quality evidence that physicians' interactions with pharmaceutical companies are associated with their prescribing patterns and quality.

In fact, pharma marketing provides inaccurate information: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28406971/, samples are bad: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36345038/, and even small gifts affect prescribing: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29069085/

Most physicians still believe that pharmaceutical marketing provides useful information, free drug samples are good for patients, and gifts under $50 are OK to receive
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Bernisson and Sismondo: How big is the medical writing industry? Why it matters
> 1000 medical education and communication companies (MECCS) provide medical writing services, mostly sponsored by pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies
academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

Ep. 11 - "Measles is on the rise, but vaccines are still wise!" with Dr. Paul Offit

Listen to Paul Offit's sane take on vaccines on our Pharmanipulation podcast
open.spotify.com/episode/1VlC...

How big is the medical writing industry? Why it matters Abstract. Medical writing is a key element in pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to shape the relevant medical science literature. As part of what is called

Bernisson and Sismondo: How big is the medical writing industry? Why it matters
> 1000 medical education and communication companies (MECCS) provide medical writing services, mostly sponsored by pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies
academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

Prominent critic of RFK Jr. blocked from FDA vaccine committee Paul Offit, a pediatrician and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, can no longer participate in the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

Paul Offit ousted from FDA vaccines advisory committee after multiple criticisms of HHS secretary: "RFK Jr. is laser-focused on making vaccines less available, less affordable, and more feared"
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...