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

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

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 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 MedPage Today. By Jerry Avorn. Teaser/Abstract "Ideally, the approval of a new drug should be exclusively the province of science, but for a more than half-trillion-dollar-a-year industry, it couldn't possibly remain so. The same libertarian posture of the earlier twentieth century — the spirit that opposed government's right to require accurate drug labeling and prevent toxicity — lives on in the insistence by some advocates on the far right that the government shouldn'

From Substack. By Donald Kreis. Teaser/Abstract "Dr. Jerry Avorn, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a senior internist at the Harvard-affiliated Mass General Brigham healthcare empire, is the sort of person who loves to bite the hand that feeds him. Hence his searing and witty new book, Rethinking Medications, which gives it to you straight about how our nation's healthcare system — with Harvard Medical School at or near the center of the universe — is failing us mise

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 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 Chana A. Sacks, MD; Jerry Avorn, MD; Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH. SUMMARY: This NEJM Perspective by Sacks, Avorn, and Kesselheim examines the case of solanezumab, a monoclonal antibody developed for Alzheimer's disease that failed to demonstrate meaningful clinical benefit in trials. The authors argue that the FDA's rejection of the drug — despite significant industry and patient-advocate pressure to approve it — served the pu

From Health Affairs. By Jerry Avorn, MD. SUMMARY: This Health Affairs article by Dr. Avorn uses the case of nesiritide (Natrecor) — a drug approved for acute decompensated heart failure that was rapidly adopted into widespread practice before post-market studies raised serious concerns about its safety and efficacy — to illuminate broader problems in the US drug approval and post-market surveillance system. The Natrecor story illustrates the risks of rapid clinical adoption o