Medications

3 new pharma marketing tactics every physician should know

Meds

May 22, 2026

Weeks after a FiercePharma webinar told drug reps to make the lab worker their first sales point and not the patient’s doctor (to avoid a delay in “therapy adoption”), the three-day Fierce Pharma Engage conference in San Diego unveiled more aggressive, stealth sales tactics.

At the well-funded meet-and-greet with 700 well-turned-out attendees, 150 speakers, and 56 corporate sponsors, we learned that:

1. AI will take over interactions with doctors (HCPs)

Whether …

4 questions to ask about enterprise AI drug dosing

Amanda Heidemann, MD

Tech

April 27, 2026

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how health care organizations support clinicians and, ultimately, how they care for patients. That transformation, however, is unfolding along two very different paths at the point of care.

In one model, adoption is clinician-driven. Tools are downloaded, tested, and incorporated into daily practice without formal enterprise involvement. This organic uptake often reflects real clinical need, especially in environments defined by time pressure and cognitive overload. But it …

The $500,000 drug and the cost of modern medicine

Francisco M. Torres, MD

Meds

April 21, 2026

I met him as a patient with a back condition, not a cardiac patient. A 70-year-old man who looked like he had outrun aging through sheer willpower and a well-worn bicycle. He rode more than a hundred miles a week, had the resting heart rate of a seasoned athlete, and carried himself with the kind of confidence that comes from a lifetime of good health. His only complaint was lower-back …

Huntington’s disease gene therapy: FDA reversal delays AMT-130

Meghan Johnston, MPH

Meds

March 17, 2026

At the end of September 2025, a gene therapy company released results from a clinical trial showing that a breakthrough procedure reduced the progression of Huntington’s symptoms by 75 percent over three years. Researchers collected data from 12 participants who received the therapy and compared the data with two types of control groups.

The company’s drug, AMT-130, shows unprecedented outcomes, so why is the FDA slowing …

The truth about psychiatric supplements and mental health

Muhamad Aly Rifai, MD

Meds

March 15, 2026

Patients ask me about supplements every week. They bring bottles from Amazon, health food stores, podcasts, and social media. They want something natural. They want something gentler. They want something they can buy without asking permission. I understand the instinct. Psychiatric medications have side effects, cost, stigma, and disappointment. But the supplement aisle is not a sanctuary. It is a marketplace that could turn dangerous.

That matters because supplements in the …

Kratom vs. 7-OH: Understanding the potency gap and risks

Emma Fenske and Bradley M. Buchheit

Meds

March 13, 2026

The clink of ice in the glass had been an evening “wind down” routine ever since the pandemic. It had served as a way to drown remnants of stress that bubbled up throughout the course of the day. This “routine” developed over weeks, but eventually evolved into dependence, addiction even, he worried. I need to do something about this before I lose it all, he thought one morning upon waking …

Why the FDA regulations on peptide therapy matter

Vikas Patel, MD

Meds

March 10, 2026

Everyone wants peptides, do you not? That includes Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Last week, he announced on the Joe Rogan Experience that the FDA would reverse its restrictions on roughly 14 peptides that were banned from compounding pharmacies in 2023. “My hope is that they’re going to get moved to a place where people have access from ethical suppliers,” he told Rogan, while acknowledging, in …

Unregulated botanical products pose hidden risks in convenience stores [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 7, 2026

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Psychiatrist, internist, and addiction medicine specialist Muhamad Aly Rifai discusses his article “Unregulated botanical products: the hidden risks of convenience store supplements.” Muhamad explores the dangerous misconception that “natural” equals safe, revealing …

The cost of ignoring pharmacist clinical judgment in health care

Muhammad Abdullah Khan

Conditions

January 21, 2026

A patient walks into the pharmacy with a prescription. The pharmacist reviews it, recognizes a serious problem, and contacts the prescriber. The prescriber dismisses the concern. The pharmacist has two choices: dispense a medication they know is wrong, or refuse and risk professional consequences. This happens daily. And health care pretends it doesn’t.

The power imbalance nobody discusses

Pharmacists are trained to be medication experts. They study pharmacokinetics, drug interactions, disease-specific dosing, …

Regulatory red tape threatens survival of rare disease patients [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 10, 2026

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Medical oncologist, geriatrician, and physician scientist GJ van Londen and Chief of Genetic and Genomic Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Gerald Vockley discuss the article “FDA delays could …

Methodological errors in Cochrane reviews of anticoagulation therapy

David K. Cundiff, MD

Conditions

January 4, 2026

My previous KevinMD article discussed a Cochrane Collaboration review that was completed in 2002 but was not published until 2006. This review examined three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing anticoagulants with placebos or anti-inflammatory drugs for venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Along with my two co-authors, I found that across these three trials, anticoagulant-treated patients had six deaths out of 66 patients, compared to only one death out of 60 in the placebo …

Corporate greed and medical complicity fueled a $250,000 drug [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 2, 2026

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Internal medicine and pulmonary physician Bharat Desai discusses his article “How Acthar Gel became a $250,000 drug.” Bharat shares the shocking moment he realized an obsolete pituitary extract from 1952 was being …

Is tramadol really ineffective and risky?

John A. Bumpus, PhD

Meds

December 29, 2025

For nearly half a century, tramadol has been used as a pain reliever. It is not perfect, no analgesic is, but it has helped millions upon millions of patients with chronic pain. That is why recent headlines declaring tramadol “less effective” and “more risky” caught my attention. These stories were based on a single meta-analysis, which concluded that this medication offers “limited analgesic benefits” and that its harms, …

The dangers of oral steroids for seasonal illness

Megan Milne, PharmD

Meds

December 25, 2025

“I’m here (cough) to pick up (cough) the steroid,” says the visibly sick patient at the pharmacy. The pharmacist tries not to breathe in too deeply to catch the contagion as she hands over the box of pills. The patient has no idea that others have nicknamed it “poison” or “the Devil’s drug,” because it’s not worth it. The risks of casually prescribing prednisone or Medrol Dosepaks for seasonal illnesses …

The AI innovation-access gap in medicine

Tiffiny Black, DM, MPA, MBA

Meds

December 22, 2025

Artificial intelligence has transformed pharmaceutical science more rapidly than any other part of health care. AI can now:

Identify molecular targets faster than human researchers
Compress early discovery timelines from years to months
Simulate how millions of compounds might behave in the body
Predict toxicity or poor efficacy before a drug is ever synthesized
Help design personalized therapies built on real-world clinical data

Recent analyses in Drug Discovery Today and …

The loss of community pharmacy expertise

Muhammad Abdullah Khan

Conditions

December 15, 2025

Walk into most community pharmacies today and you’ll notice something off. The pharmacist who used to remember your name and medication history is gone. The one who caught that dangerous drug interaction last year? Also gone. In their place, a rotating cast of temporary faces, each one just trying to survive the shift.

This isn’t about a labor shortage. We have pharmacists. What we’re losing is something else entirely. Expertise, continuity, …

How should kratom be regulated? [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

December 14, 2025

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Retired nurse practitioner Heidi Sykora discusses her article, “The case for regulating, not banning, kratom.” She provides an evidence-based perspective on why kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) should not be treated as a dangerous …

Why the cannabis ethics debate is really about human suffering

Gerald Kuo

Meds

December 10, 2025

Most discussions about cannabis stay on the surface: legality, crime, or medical claims. But the core question is this: What suffering does a society allow? After watching a recent documentary with police, lawyers, physicians, and families, I found cannabis is the stage. The real drama is the system behind it. When ethics is pushed far, inconsistencies become impossible to ignore.

1. Legal ethics: When the law punishes pain instead of harm

Some …

Why medical malpractice data is hidden

Howard Smith, MD

Physician

November 19, 2025

I learned the forbidden truth by searching “how many medical malpractice lawsuits are filed per year and how many are frivolous?” The answer is “17,000-20,000 and all are legitimate.” This answer is incongruous with seven facts.

The facts are: First, a complication causes a medical malpractice lawsuit. Some are medical errors; some are random errors-of-nature. Since an error-of-nature is not caused by negligence, a resulting lawsuit is frivolous. Second, …

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Why medical malpractice data is hidden

Are you neurodivergent or just bored?

Martha Rosenberg

Meds

November 18, 2025

Do you get bored when reading a boring book? Do you struggle to concentrate when you haven’t had enough sleep? Do you have difficulty following instructions, make careless mistakes and forget to return calls? Are you sometimes the last one to “get” a joke?

You may be “suffering from” with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and are “neurodivergent” and “on the spectrum.”

Today’s ASD “neurodivergence” craze has spawned at least two lucrative and …

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Are you neurodivergent or just bored?