If you believe that the latest blockbuster medication is worth a premium price over your generic brand, or that doctors have access to all the information they need about a drug’s safety and effectiveness each time they write a prescription, Dr. Jerry Avorn has some sobering news.
Drawing on more than twenty-five years of patient care, teaching, and research at Harvard Medical School, he shares his experience of the gap in our knowledge of the effectiveness of one medication compared to another. In Powerful Medicines, he reminds us that every pill we take represents a delicate compromise between the promise of healing, the risk of side effects, and daunting prices.