Adriane Fugh-Berman is a professor in the department of pharmacology and physiology, and in the department of

family medicine Family medicine is a medical specialty within primary care that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary ...

, at

Georgetown University Medical Center Georgetown University Medical Center is a biomedical research and educational organization that responsible for over 80% of Georgetown University's sponsored research funding and is led by Edward B. Healton, MD, the Executive Vice President for He ...

. She is also the director of PharmedOut, a

project that promotes rational prescribing and researches the effects of pharmaceutical and medical device industry marketing on prescribing behavior and therapeutic choices. Additionally, she is the Co-Director of the M.S. in Health and the Public Interest (HAPI) Program at the

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

Education

Fugh-Berman graduated from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

with a B.A. in Literature and Environmental Studies and received a B.S. from the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

. She received her M.D. from

Georgetown University School of Medicine Georgetown University School of Medicine, a medical school opened in 1851, is one of Georgetown University's five graduate schools. It is located on Reservoir Road in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, adjacent to the University's ...

, after which she completed an internship in family medicine at

Montefiore Medical Center Montefiore Medical Center is a premier academic medical center and the primary teaching hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City. Its main campus, the Henry and Lucy Moses Division, is located in the Norwoo ...

Career

Prior to joining Georgetown, Fugh-Berman worked as a medical officer at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and with the Reproductive Toxicology Center. Fugh-Berman appeared on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

documentary "The Bleeding Edge", which highlights the dangers for patients of rushed technological changes in the medical devices field. A clip of her was featured on John Oliver's "Medical Devices" episode on HBO. Dr. Fugh-Berman is a professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, where she also leads the PharmedOUT program.

Research

Fugh-Berman has published numerous studies regarding the relationship between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry, off-label promotion, ghostwritten articles, and invented diseases. Dr. Fugh-Berman collaborates with Dr. Susan Wood at the

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

Milken Institute School of Public Health and the Washington DC Department of Health on the DC Center for Rational Prescribing, which provides free, industry-free continuing medical education and resources to physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and pharmacists. Dr. Fugh-Berman is also an expert on botanical medicine and dietary supplements and directs Georgetown's Urban Herbs project, which maintains ecological gardens on campus that intermix edible, medicinal, and ornamental plants. She is the author of a clinical textbook, The 5-Minute Herb and Dietary Supplement Consult.

Opioid crisis

Georgetown University Medical Center professor, Fugh-Berman, served as a paid expert witness in the lawsuit filed in 2017 by the State of Oklahoma against 13 major pharmaceutical companies for "damages linked to the

opioid crisis The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse/abuse, and overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs opiates/opioids since the 1990s. It includes the sign ...

. According to the original 2017 petition, Oklahoma said the sale of

Oxycontin Oxycodone, sold under various brand names such as Roxicodone and OxyContin (which is the extended release form), is a strong, semi-synthetic opioid used medically for treatment of moderate to severe pain. It is highly addictive and a commonly ...

, by its manufacturer,

Purdue Pharma Purdue Pharma L.P., formerly the Purdue Frederick Company, is an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was owned principally by members of the Sackler family as descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler ...

, from 1996 to 2009, rose from $48 million to $3 billion. According to a March 26, 2019

PBS News The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

article, Fugh-Berman who works out of the University's Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, said that over time, "industry-generated narrative ecameconventional wisdom". PBS News wrote that "these deadly consequences didn’t happen overnight". Fugh-Berman said that the industry used "pervasive marketing tactics" to "influence conversations" between "patients", "doctors, medical school students and instructors". The article said that "One tactic that opioid manufacturers used to protect sales was the rebranding of substance use disorder as pseudo addiction — that patients who took opioid medication and later developed symptoms of addiction should be treated with more opioids. According to the ''PBS News'' March 2019 article, "while fewer doctors are writing opioid prescriptions" than they did prior to the mid-2010s, Fugh-Berman said that "it is nowhere near a reasonable level." PBS said that even in 2019, "opioid marketing continues to lead doctors to guide patients toward the drugs."

Views

Fugh-Berman has been critical of multiple popular pharmaceutical drugs and treatments, including

testosterone replacement therapy Androgen replacement therapy (ART), often referred to as testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), is a form of hormone therapy in which androgens, often testosterone, are supplemented or replaced exogenously ...

and

flibanserin Flibanserin, sold under the brand name Addyi, is a medication approved for the treatment of pre-menopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). The medication improves sexual desire, increases the number of satisfying sexual eve ...

. She has also criticized how the numerical values used to diagnose diabetes and high cholesterol have been lowered over time, and has criticized

Eli Lilly Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was an American soldier, pharmacist, chemist, and businessman who founded the Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical corporation. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War and r ...

for allegedly inventing

premenstrual dysphoric disorder Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a mood disorder characterized by emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms that cause significant distress or impairment in menstruating women during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The symptoms ...

to sell its drug

Sarafem Fluoxetine, sold under the brand names Prozac and Sarafem, among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used for the treatment of major depressive disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorde ...

Personal

Fugh-Berman's mother Aline Fugh Berman () was the eldest sister of former

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

John Fugh Major General John Liu Fugh (; ; September 12, 1934 – May 11, 2010) was the first Chinese American to attain general officer status in the U.S. Army. He was of Manchu descent. He was the 33rd Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Army. Early li ...

, who was married to

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow ...

's elder sister June. Aline's younger sister, artist Dora Fugh Lee (), is the mother of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

-based attorney and property developer Handel Lee.

References

External links

*
Medical Devices: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fugh-Berman, Adriane Living people Georgetown University Medical Center faculty Georgetown University School of Medicine alumni American pharmacologists Women pharmacologists American women physicians American primary care physicians Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Opioid epidemic American women academics 21st-century American women