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 December. The selections feature topics ranging from access to clinical trials data, to pharmacy-based interventions to reduce primary medication non-adherence, to the impact of out-of-pocket spending caps on the non-elderly with private group health insurance. A full posting of abstracts/summaries of these articles may be found on our website.

1. Bonini S, Eichler HG, Wathion N, Rasi G. Transparency and the European Medicines Agency—sharing of clinical trial data. N Engl J Med. 2014 Dec 25;371(26):2452-2455.
2. Fischer MA, Choudhry NK, Bykov K, Brill G, Bopp G, Wurst AM, Shrank WH. Pharmacy-based interventions to reduce primary medication nonadherence to cardiovascular medications. Med Care. 2014 Dec;52(12):1050-1054.

3. Kesselheim AS, Huybrechts KF, Choudhry NK, Fulchino LA, Isaman DL, Kowal MK, Brennan TA. Prescription Drug Insurance Coverage and Patient Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Am J Public Health. 2014 Dec 18:e1-e14. [Epub ahead of print]

4. Nissen SE. Commentary: Confidentiality of interim trial data-The emerging crisis. Clin Trials. 2014 Dec 18. [Epub ahead of print]

5. Notenboom K, Beers E, van Riet-Nales DA, Egberts TC, Leufkens HG, Jansen PA, Bouvy ML. Practical Problems with Medication Use that Older People Experience: A Qualitative Study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014 Dec;62(12):2339-2344.

6. Riggs KR, Buttorff C, Alexander GC. Impact of Out-of-Pocket Spending Caps on Financial Burden of those with Group Health Insurance. J Gen Intern Med. 2014 Dec 4. [Epub ahead of print]

7. Zarin DA, Tse T, Sheehan J. The Proposed Rule for U.S. Clinical Trial Registration and Results Submission.N Engl J Med. 2014 Dec 24. [Epub ahead of print]