Causes Or Cures

Send us a textIn 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.Dr. Avorn pulls no punches. We talk about:How our current system rewards speed over evidence, and why “accelerated approval” may sound good but can lead to disaster.The rise of drugs approved with weak or surrogate endpoints, yet priced like gold (yep, you still pay full price for half-baked science).Shocking case studies, like the Vioxx heart attack debacle and the controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm.The FDA’s evolution from watchdog to lapdog (in some cases).Conflicts of interest.Public funding, private profits: how taxpayer money fuels breakthroughs that we can