Winner: SELF Magazine, ‘Bad Bargain,’ by Katherine Eban
Generic prescription medicine has been promoted for over a decade as a cheaper, more efficient way to manage personal healthcare costs. Millions of Americans each day rely on the safety of the system and the implicit assurance of the industry that generics are identical to the name brand of a medicine. And so SELF’s expose, “Bad Bargain,” was a chilling and necessary reminder that government regulators can be asleep at the switch.
Reporter Katherine Eban discovered that manufacturers need only show the FDA that a generic alternative to an original drug has the same essential active ingredient and dosage. And yet there are numerous reports of unexplained and unanticipated side effects from patients switching to generics. SELF revealed that, in fact, a substantial debate among doctors is taking place off of most consumers’ radar. The article outlines how major classes of generic drug alternatives have raised concerns among professionals about the wisdom of swapping in replacements. She discovered charges that generic manufacturers did not do the proper testing of some drugs’ release rates to see if they did indeed perform the same as the originals in the user’s body. And she discovered charges of outright fraud in the drug supply chain. In all, “Bad Bargain” empowered readers to ask the right questions of their doctors and a system that seemed to be failing them.
Learn more about this winner.
Honorable Mentions
Entertainment Weekly – “The Crazy Cult of The Room,” by Clark Collis: How is a cult film made? Collis traces the improbably low-budget classic The Room to its roots in the imagination of a filmmaker he dubs “the Orson Welles of crap.”
Entertainment Weekly – “He Knew He’d Done Something Special,” by Josh Rottenberg and Christine Spines: A year after actor Heath Ledger’s death, EW gathered his friends and co-workers to assemble a touching oral biography that fleshes out an untold story of a life ended just as it was really beginning.
Every Day With Rachael Ray – “Food A-Z,” by Liz Pearson: The A-Z list gets reinvented in this clever rundown of foodie essentials, all with real takeaways for the common cook’s kitchen.
BusinessWeek – “They Warned Us,” by Robert Berner and Brian Grow: BW demonstrated early on in the subprime meltdown how government regulators and legislators, the supposed watchdogs of the system, actually worked with aggressive bank lobbies to silence the many warnings about dangerous, irresponsible lending.
Travel + Leisure – “At Home in Provence,” by Luke Barr: A genuinely unique portrait of a region as seen through the eyes of M.F.K. Fisher’s family.
Travel + Leisure – “50 Best New American Restaurants,” by Anya von Bremzen: From a sandwich shop in San Francisco to a Basque-inspired restaurant serving sautéed squid in New York, this feature made the discovery of new culinary experiences an adventure in new thinking about food.
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