Past Contest Entries

Tweaking Drug Trial Design in the Hunt for the FDA’s Green Light

We investigated the FDA’s approval of three drugs: flibanserin (Addyi), rofecoxib (Vioxx) and rosiglitazone (Avandia). To do so, we pored over public records and medical data from the FDA-sponsored experiments and other documents about the drugs, and interviewed medical experts, some of whom work at the FDA or conducted those clinical trials. What we found was that the FDA accepted and sometimes insisted on weak scientific methodology and approved these drugs even though the FDA knew the drugs were dangerous and might not even work.

Place:

First Place

Year:

  • 2018

Category:

  • Student

Affiliation:

Undark

Reporter:

Ashley Lyles, Dan Robitzski and Cici Zhang

Links: