Perspectives

From HealthAffairs. By Aaron S. Kesselheim and Jerry Avorn. At a time of rapidly developing new medications and growing public health challenges, there is now no official leadership in place at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Office of the Surgeon General. Marty Makary's legacy will be that he undercut many of the key principles that had made the agency one of the most important public health institutions in the

With Mirko von Hein and The Pharma Perspective. Harvard professor Jerry Avorn and I discuss drug regulation, FDA approval standards, surrogate endpoints, pharmaceutical pricing, public research funding, medical misinformation, and what all of this means for patients, innovation, and health policy.

From the New England Journal of Medicine. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: In this NEJM Perspective, Dr. Avorn reflects on a physician-designed Massachusetts ballot initiative from the year 2000 that sought to transform health care financing and organization. Although the initiative failed at the ballot box, Avorn argues that it represented a significant — if largely unrecognized — turning point in US health policy. The piece examines how even unsuccessful reform efforts can sh

Harlan Krumholz & Howard Forman, Yale Medical School | Health & Veritas Podcast. In a Wide-Ranging Interview, Dr. Jerry Avorn Explains How the Drug Marketing Machine Works — and How to Counter It Source: Health & Veritas, Yale School of Management, Episode 195, November 13, 2025 In a November 2025 episode of Health & Veritas — the Yale School of Management podcast hosted by physicians Howard Forman and Harlan Krumholz — Jerry Avorn, MD, sat down for an extended conversation c

From STAT News. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: In this STAT News First Opinion essay, Dr. Avorn argues that private pharmaceutical investment cannot substitute for federal NIH funding. He opens with a historical account: around 1990, a Harvard researcher investigating a little-known peptide with potential to slow gastric emptying and reduce hunger — what would later become the basis for the GLP-1 drug class — sought pharmaceutical-company support because federal funding was una

From STAT First Opinion. By Jerry Avorn. Abstract "Around 1990, a bright, young Harvard academic became interested in the possibility that a relatively unknown peptide might slow gastric emptying and reduce hunger — a potential boon to the treatment of diabetes. Although he was employed as a full-time faculty researcher and clinician at a major teaching hospital and his lab was funded by the National Institutes of Health, he chose to pursue this particular line of research pr

From The Health Affairs Forefront. By Jerry Avorn, MD and Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH. SUMMARY: This Health Affairs Forefront piece examines the potential impact of sweeping Trump administration tariffs on the US health care system. The authors argue that tariffs framed as tools of economic and geopolitical strategy carry serious unintended consequences for health care supply chains, hospital budgets, and medication affordability. The piece provides concrete data on US r

From The People’s Pharmacy. Abstract "Americans spend more on drugs and have less to show for it than people in other countries. The FDA used to be the envy of the world. Has it been captured by the pharmaceutical industry it's supposed to regulate?" In this wide-ranging episode of The People's Pharmacy — one of the most substantive and practically useful interviews in the archive — Dr. Jerry Avorn joins hosts Joe and Terry Graedon for a 70-minute conversation covering the er

From American Society for Pharmacy Law (ASPL). In this special edition premiere of Post Scrip, host Henry sits down with Dr. Jerry Avorn, MD, Harvard Medical School professor and author of the groundbreaking book Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power and the Drugs You Take. Dr. Avorn, a senior internist at Mass General Brigham and author of over 600 papers, takes us on a dive into the complex world of drug approval, pricing, and pharmaceutical policy. This episode explores how

S4E1 - Rethinking Medications with Dr. Jerry Avorn, MD From Post Scrip. In this special edition premiere of Post Scrip, host Henry sits down with Dr. Jerry Avorn, MD, Harvard Medical School professor and author of the groundbreaking book Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power and the Drugs You Take. Dr. Avorn, a senior internist at Mass General Brigham and author of over 600 papers, takes us on a dive into the complex world of drug approval, pricing, and pharmaceutical policy.

From Causes or Cures Podcast with Dr. Eeks. In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks chats with Dr. Jerry Avorn, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, drug safety watchdog, and author of Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power, and the Drugs You Take. If you’ve ever felt uneasy about the rising cost of prescription drugs, the process or speed by which new meds are approved, or why the side effects list is longer than your grocery receipt, this episode is for you

From the Health Affairs Forefront. By Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH and Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: This Health Affairs Forefront piece by Kesselheim and Avorn reviews the gap between the Trump administration's rhetoric on drug pricing and its actual policy record, and warns that new tariff-based initiatives represent a step backward. The authors note that despite considerable noise about lowering drug prices in Trump's first term, little of consequence was accomplished. In

From Science-Based Policy. By David Weinberg. Teaser/Abstract "Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power, and the Drugs You Take by Jerry Avorn presents a critical appraisal of the state of the prescription medications in the United States. It explores the complex relationships among drug companies, regulators, prescribers, academics, and patients. The book is part history of US drug regulation, part critique of the status quo, and finally, a roadmap for a better path forward." S

From Changing Minds Podcast. Teaser/Abstract "How do we stay the course and stay rooted in facts amidst a major disruption impacting the healthcare landscape? 'Godfather' and originator of academic detailing Jerry Avorn joins the show to share his reflections on the current state of healthcare; the history of treatment and medications prior to rigorous study; his new book, Rethinking Medications; the critical importance of treating evidence, facts, and science as our collecti

From NPR's On Point. By Paige Sutherland and Deborah Becker. Teaser/Abstract "With more than 60% of Americans taking a prescription drug, there are increasing questions about how these medicines are approved, how they're kept safe and how they're priced. In a new book, Harvard's Dr. Jerry Avorn argues the drugs we take have been compromised by profits." Source: On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti, WBUR Boston, April 21, 2025. Host: Deborah Becker. Duration: 45 minutes 32 seconds

From the American Journal of Epidemiology. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: This invited commentary in the American Journal of Epidemiology addresses the origins, current status, and future possibilities of interventional pharmacoepidemiology — a field that uses epidemiological methods not merely to study drug use and outcomes but to actively intervene to improve prescribing. Avorn, one of the founders of this approach through his landmark 1983 academic-detailing trial, reflects

From The Washington Post. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: In this Washington Post opinion piece, Dr. Avorn argues that the FDA's binary approve-or-reject framework is structurally ill-suited to drugs like Leqembi (lecanemab), which occupy a gray zone of modest benefit and meaningful risk. Leqembi offers only modest benefit for Alzheimer's disease, could pose worrisome safety risks, and stands to cost the nation $2 billion to $5 billion per year. Avorn contends that even when a d

From the New England Journal of Medicine. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: In this NEJM Perspective written shortly after Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in Economics for behavioral economics, Dr. Avorn applies behavioral decision-making insights to clinical practice — particularly to prescribing decisions. Avorn argues that the simplified rational-actor model of physician decision-making fails to account for the psychological biases, heuristics, and cognitive shortcuts that s

From the New England Journal of Medicine. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: In this NEJM Perspective, Dr. Avorn surveys two centuries of drug risk assessment in the United States, tracing how society's capacity to identify, measure, and respond to the harms caused by medications has evolved from the era of patent medicines to the sophisticated pharmacovigilance infrastructure of the modern FDA. The piece contextualizes contemporary drug safety challenges — including rofecoxib (Vio

From the New England Journal of Medicine. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: In this NEJM Perspective, Dr. Avorn defends the field of pharmacoepidemiology against critics who argue that observational data are inherently unreliable and that only randomized controlled trials can provide valid evidence about drug effects. Avorn argues for a both/and approach — the yin and yang of drug research — in which RCT and observational methods complement each other, each suited to answering dif