Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy

By Ameet Sarpatwari and Aaron S. Kesselheim

Each month, the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL) in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School reviews the peer-reviewed medical literature to identify interesting empirical studies, in-depth analyses, and thoughtful editorials on pharmaceutical law and policy.

Below are the papers identified from November. The selections feature topics ranging from the use of e-prescribing defaults to promote physician prescribing of generic drugs, to the characteristics of post-approval studies of medical devices ordered by the FDA, to a comparison of existing and emerging accelerated access pathways in the United States, European Union, Canada, and Singapore. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.

1. Alpern JD, Stauffer WM, Kesselheim AS. High-cost generic drugs–implications for patients and policymakers. N Engl J Med. 2014 Nov 13;371(20):1859-62.
2. Baird LG, Banken R, Eichler HG, Kristensen FB, Lee DK, Lim JC, Lim R, Longson C, Pezalla E, Salmonson T, Samaha D, Tunis S, Woodcock J, Hirsch G. Accelerated access to innovative medicines for patients in need. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2014 Nov;96(5):559-71.
3. Becker JE, Ross JS. Reporting Discrepancies Between the ClinicalTrials.gov Results Database and Peer-Reviewed Publications. Ann Intern Med. 2014 Nov 18;161(10):760.
4. Gagne JJ, Thompson L, O’Keefe K, Kesselheim AS. Innovative research methods for studying treatments for rare diseases: methodological review. BMJ. 2014 Nov 24;349:g6802.
5. Lexchin J. Postmarket safety warnings for drugs approved in Canada under the Notice ofCompliance with conditions policy. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2014 Nov 12. [Epub ahead of print]
6. Manz C, Ross JS, Grande D. Marketing to physicians in a digital world. N Engl J Med. 2014 Nov 13;371(20):1857-9.
7. Patel MS, Day S, Small DS, Howell JT 3rd, Lautenbach GL, Nierman EH, Volpp KG. Using Default Options Within the Electronic Health Record to Increase the Prescribing of Generic-Equivalent Medications: A Quasi-experimental Study. Ann Intern Med. 2014 Nov 18;161(10 Suppl):S44-52.
8. Reynolds IS, Rising JP, Coukell AJ, Paulson KH, Redberg RF. Assessing the Safety and Effectiveness of Devices After US Food and Drug Administration Approval: FDA-Mandated Postapproval Studies. JAMA Intern Med. 2014 Nov 1;174(11):1773-9.
9. Vermeer NS, Spierings I, Mantel-Teeuwisse AK, Straus SM, Giezen TJ, Leufkens HG, Egberts TC, De Bruin ML. Traceability of biologicals: present challenges in pharmacovigilance. Expert Opin Drug Saf. 2014 Nov 5:1-10. [Epub ahead of print]
10. Woloshin S, Schwartz LM, Frankel B, Faerber A. US Food and Drug Administration and design of drug approval studies. JAMA. 2014 Nov 26;312(20):2163-5.