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Criticism Of Drug Advertising Prompts Review

Posting Date: 08/15/2005

In 1997 the FDA opened Pandora?s box when it changed its rules to permit widespread advertising of prescription drugs to consumers. Before that, regulations were so strict that most drug companies didn?t see any value in promoting such products to anyone but health professionals.

Last year, the pharmaceutical industry spent over $4 billion on TV and radio commercials, print ads and Web-based promotions to the public. But a chorus of criticism from Congress, physicians and the public has the FDA and the drug industry scrambling to reevaluate this strategy.

We often hear from parents who are dismayed that their young children see ads on television for drugs to relieve erectile dysfunction. Some physicians are also weary of fielding questions about prescription drugs from patients who saw them advertised on TV. This year the American Medical Association considered resolutions urging restrictions or even an outright ban on direct-to-consumer commercials.

The AMA is studying this issue until its next annual meeting. In the meantime, however, we have received letters like the following:

?I am a doctor and have been practicing for 35 years. I am disgusted by the ads on TV advising patients about the advantages and disadvantages of certain drugs. When you hear the side effects, you are almost ready to throw up because they are sometimes worse than the benefits. I think the government should intervene into the commercialism that is shown by the pharmaceutical industry because most of these ads are very misleading.?

The FDA is sensitive to such critiques. For the first time in a decade, the agency is planning a public meeting to kick off its review of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

With this initiative on the horizon, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is proposing some changes of its own. This industry trade group has just issued voluntary guidelines to its member companies.