Pfizer chairman and CEO said that he’ll be submitting Ads to the FDA (link disappeared) for preview. Last week Bristol-Myers Squibb became the first major drug firm to not advertise their new drugs to consumers in a product’s first year on the market. Some people say that’s not enough.
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reporters, said it would like to see laws requiring that pharmaceutical firms publicly post all drug study results, instead of only those that demonstrate positive outcomes. It said it also would like requirements that ads discuss the risks associated with drugs as well as the benefits when they depict people frolicking on beaches or running symptom-free through pollen-filled meadows.
I definitely agree that they should be required to publicly post all drug studies good and bad, as well as the side effects. It looks like the pharmaceutical industry is beginning to start self-regulating their advertising prompted by consumer and physician complaints.
Smart business move, self regulate before the govt does it for you. In Canada we don’t allow drug companies to advertise their products on TV, so we probably have less negative consumer reaction against the industry as a result. It appears that the ads are working.
A Prevention magazine survey showed that about one-third of patients who recalled a drug ad asked their doctor about it. And research published in April in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed patients who mentioned an advertised drug in connection with health complaints were five times more likely to get a prescription for that drug than those who simply discussed their symptoms.
Are the direct ads really helping consumers get the right product for their conditions? I told one of the pharmaceutical reps at the recent CADDRA Vancouver ADHD conference that the pharmaceutical companies are sometimes very helpful to ADDers with their actual products and their sponsorship of conventions and speakers relating to ADD (which are usually done as an unrestricted educational grant), but they’re also sometimes they’re among our worst enemies with their periodic over the top ads that give fuel for the flat earth people that deny that ADHD exists or it’s a drug company/space alien conspiracy.
And before you start flaming me about the evils of accepting money from the drug companies for ADD events, tell me who else is offering to pay for these badly needed events?
I don’t think they should be allowed to advertise their products to the public. A psychoactive drug should not be marketed like a lawn mower or a candy bar.