The System Behind Your Meds

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 The National Resource Center on Academic Detailing NaRCAD. In a thought piece published on the NaRCAD blog in October 2025, Jerry Avorn, MD — Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, co-founder of NaRCAD, and author of Rethinking Medications — argues that the concept of "provenance" has become the defining challenge for evidence-based medicine in the current political moment. Dr. Avorn opens by tracing the word itself. "Provenance," he explains, means the source

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 NPR's On Point. By Meghna Chakrabarti. In this October 2025 episode of WBUR's On Point, Dr. Jerry Avorn joins host Meghna Chakrabarti and Sarah Emond, president and CEO of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), to dissect the Trump administration's TrumpRx initiative, analyze the deals struck with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and explain why the United States pays dramatically more for prescription drugs than every other wealthy nation on earth. Why Americans

From I'm a Pharmacy Podcast. By Mina Tadrous. This episode of the University of Toronto's I'm Pharmacy podcast opens with a striking image: a bus full of Americans crossing the border into Canada with Senator Bernie Sanders — not for sightseeing, but to buy insulin. The image frames the episode's central question: how did the United States end up with the most expensive prescription drug prices in the world, and what does that mean for the tens of millions of Americans who, u

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 the JAMA Health Forum. By Helen Mooney, Kirsten Austad, Eric G. Campbell, Jerry Avorn, MD, Zhigang Lu, Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH. SUMMARY: This JAMA Health Forum survey study examines how medical students' and residents' interactions with and attitudes toward the pharmaceutical industry changed over a 13-year period from 2011 to 2024. The research team — which includes Avorn, a founding figure in academic detailing research — surveyed the same population of train

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 Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy Forum. Teaser/Abstract "During the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy forum, experts discussed emerging solutions to address policies and tactics that currently enable high drug prices." Source: Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, "A Path to Fair Drug Pricing: Examining Competition, Value, and Access." In-person forum, Washington, DC, July 15, 2025. Video published July 31, 2025. Duration of full segment

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 Big Brains Podcast. Teaser/Abstract "When a patient gets a medication from their doctor or nurse practitioner, they assume that somebody has looked very carefully at this drug and determined that it is indeed effective for the purposes for which it's being given to you and that it's reasonably safe. I frankly think a lot of us doctors believe that that's all kind of taken care of as well." Source: Big Brains podcast, University of Chicago Podcast Network, Episode publish

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