this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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498
The FDA Is Approving Drugs Without Evidence They Work (jacobin.com)
submitted 2 days ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Over the last several decades, the Food and Drug Administration has allowed pharma companies to sell hundreds of drugs to patients without adequate evidence that they work and, in many cases, with clear signs that they pose a risk of serious harm.

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[–] trailee@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 days ago (2 children)

American health insurance companies are famously miserly, and this seems like a great area to use penny pinching for good. Where the hell are the insurance CFOs who should be demanding efficacy proof instead of being swindled along with the masses?

[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

They’re busy researching new and exciting ways of denying coverage.

[–] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They absolutely do this. A drug with a lack of efficacy data is a great way to get shortlisted to insurance denials

It’s one of the frustrating things bc people can then easily manipulate the issue. A drug that can be prescribed a doctor and filled by a pharmacy being denied by an insurance company is very easy to write about online. Then it’s a slam piece, “x insurance company denied me my meds”. Basically 0 people will have any interest in the nuance that the medication is bullshit or possibly even harmful. Too bad insurance companies made their bed by being absolutely horrible for decades, I guess.

[–] trailee@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

From the article:

While drug companies profit from the sales of unproven drugs, everyone else — patients, insurers, and the government — pays a heavy price. In just four years, from 2018 through 2021, the taxpayer-funded health insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid shelled out $18 billion for drugs approved on the condition that their manufacturers produce confirmatory trials that had yet to be delivered.

I’m guessing their citation only includes Medicare and Medicaid because those have publicly-available data for the study to review, but I have to assume that private insurers pay a ton as well. I can see your point that insurance denials result in angry sick people, but there’s not really a lot of nuance in “that medication has never been shown to be safe and effective for your (or any) condition.”

I dunno. Everyone sucks here.