After reading the nutrition facts on a box of cereal one morning, Geisel School of Medicine professors Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz thought of using the same model to communicate drug safety information.This idea became Informulary, a company seeking to increase public knowledge about commonly used medicines by publishing easy-to-read drug fact information on its website, which launched last week, they wrote in an email.
Drug advertisements are often presented in the esoteric language of medicinal drugs, which can be daunting for the average consumer. According to the Informulary website, while it is customary for Food and Drug Administration reviews to incorporate Phase III clinical trial data regarding drug effectiveness, these reports are often lengthy and lack structure and precision.
Informulary is working to provide key facts about popular medicines without the confusion and hassle generated by television and other advertisements.
According to Woloshin and Schwartz, Americans spent $370 billion on drugs in 2014 alone, many of which were either inexpensive and ineffective or, conversely, overpriced and easily replaceable with other more affordable alternatives.
The project analyzes the data the FDA uses to approve drugs to summarize the most relevant facts regarding the potential advantages and detriments of certain medications.
Once this information has been acquired, a DrugFactsBox, a label much like that of nutrition facts on food products, is created.
In 2009, the FDA’s Risk Communication Advisory Committee and Congress recommended that the DrugFactsBox be the primary source of information for the benefits and risks of pharmaceuticals, according to the Informulary website. Section 3507 of the Affordable Care Act encouraged this plan to adopt the DrugFactsBox format as a communication standard.
The FDA decided, however, that creating DrugFactsBoxes was too complicated an undertaking, Woloshin wrote in an email.
Unlike other popular medicinal information sites like WebMD, Informulary is not funded by pharmaceutical companies, founding chairman of Informulary Gregg Fairbrothers said.
“It’s a self-sustaining entity,” he said.
Grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Consumer Reports have helped further the progress of the company.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center was supportive of the project as well, Fairbrothers said. DHMC aligned with their mission of helping the greater public, added value to their production, and had good financial return, he said.
According to a 2009 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the DrugFactsBoxes have had an overwhelmingly positive influence on Americans’ understanding of the medicines themselves. When two randomized groups were given drug information — one with a DrugFactsBoxes and one with standard information, 70 percent of the drug box group identified the more effective drug, compared to 8 percent of the control group.
Fairbrothers identified two overarching hopes he has for the future of Informulary. From a social and medical perspective, he said, “we want people to use drugs wisely with the best information possible.”
In order for people to be able to do so, he said that Informulary must provide consumers with that information, presenting it to them in ways that are directly applicable.Financially, he said he hopes that the company is able to grow as cost-efficiently as possible.
Alexander Kaye ’15 became involved with the company this past July. Kaye said he was interested in pursuing a career in health and sought an opportunity to learn more about his passions while making an impact on the lives of others.
“It is a realistic way I can help both patients and doctors understand the medicines they’re using,” he said.
Kaye was also inspired by Woloshin and Schwartz’s journey to create Informulary.
“The fact that they saw an issue that needed to be addressed and just addressed it is incredible,” he said.
