I’ve spent fifty years inside American medicine, as a doctor seeing patients and as a researcher studying what actually happens once a drug leaves the lab and lands in a patient’s medicine cabinet. Along the way, I built a large research unit at Harvard, testified in the Vioxx litigation, worked with the FDA, and watched in awe as modern medicines saved my wife from a potentially fatal illness. That last one taught me a lot about all this from a completely different perspective.
I wrote Rethinking Medications because I know how many people feel lost in front of their own prescriptions: not sure if a drug is working, not sure why it costs what it costs, not sure whom to trust when the pharmaceutical industry, their doctor, and the news are all telling them different things. Many of my physician colleagues feel a similar confusion. This newsletter is where I will continue that conversation.
Here’s what you can expect from this Substack, about twice a month or so:
Clear explanations of how we know what we know about whether particular drugs are safe and effective – and worth what they cost.
A clear-eyed look at the system behind the medications: drug pricing, FDA decisions, industry influence, and the incentives that shape what is prescribed.
Practical guidance on what we can do to make sure our medicines are as well-tested and affordable as they can be.
“JerryMeandering” – other observations, personal stories, and an occasional detour, sometimes with striking photos. A few of these will wander a bit further afield, but they’ll all offer perspectives meant to be useful and even fun.
My goal is simple: to help patients and health care professionals alike make informed decisions about medications without having to take anyone’s word for it, including mine, without solid evidence behind those conclusions.
If you want the fuller story, my book Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power, and the Drugs You Take goes deep on all of this.
You can also ask questions about my research and published articles directly on my website, RethinkMeds.info. There, a custom-built AI tool digs into the book and my papers to offer plain-language answers about medications and drug policy. And it will always point you to the evidence behind that answer.
I’m glad to have you along.
Jerry Avorn, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
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