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Worstpills.org is researched, written, and maintained by Public Citizen's Health Research Group, a division of Public Citizen. Public Citizen is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts. The Health Research Group, headed by consumer advocate Dr. Sidney Wolfe, works for research-based, system-wide changes in health care policy. A primary focus is working to ban or relabel unsafe or ineffective drugs and to encourage greater transparency and accountability in the drug approval process. We also work towards improving the system for monitoring and responding to postmarketing safety concerns in the U.S., improving the information available to consumers regarding drugs and dietary supplements, and helping doctors and patients make safe and economically wise decisions about drug treatment. In order to maintain its independent status, Public Citizen does not accept funding from corporations, professional associations, or government agencies.

The Authors

Sidney Wolfe, MD has been the Director of the Health Research Group since its creation in 1971. In 1966 he began working at the National Institutes of Health where he did research on aspects of blood-clotting and on alcoholism. Dr. Wolfe met Ralph Nader in Washington, D.C. at a meeting of the American Patients Association, began advising Mr. Nader on health problems in America and helped in the recruitment of medical student volunteers who worked for Mr. Nader. Since 1995 he has been an Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. His medical degree is from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio and his internship and residency were in internal medicine. He is currently a member of the Society for General Internal Medicine. His awards include receiving the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1990.

Peter Lurie, MD, MPH is the Deputy Director of the Health Research Group. He has held faculty positions at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Michigan. After obtaining his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he completed residencies in Family Practice and Preventive Medicine/Epidemiology. He has written on the subject of needle exchange programs, and on ethical aspects of drug and vaccine trials in developing countries.

Elizabeth Barbehenn, PhD was trained as a biochemist and was a researcher at the National Institutes of Health for 10 years. Subsequently, she worked for the Food and Drug Administration as a pharmacologist for 13 years analyzing toxicity data from animal studies. Since 1998, she has been with the Health Research Group where she continues her work analyzing drug safety.