Ban Direct To Consumer Drug Advertising
In no uncertain terms, it is time to ban direct to consumer drug advertising! This is one of the engines that is running our profession straight to the dump. Ask yourself, is it worth a few phone calls to your representatives and senators to get this stopped?
The New York Times has an article, “Lawmakers Seek to Curb Drug Commercials”. Find out who represents you in Congress and how to contact them. Click here to get phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses.
A number of representatives in Congress are sponsoring bills to curb or stop direct to consumer drug advertising.
The voices of pharmacists have to carry weight with the legislators. Call today.
3 Responses to “Ban Direct To Consumer Drug Advertising”
This was always a no-brainer to me, getting rid of these ads, these prostitutions of medication. My resentment goes back to the days when a manufacturer told people in an ad that they might have intermittent claudication. The new drug wasn’t mentioned by name in the ad (this was back in the early eighties), but the implication was there that the listener should go to the doctor and ask, “Key, Doc, what can you do for my intermittent claudication?” and then get that company’s drug prescribed for them.
DTC advertising has since become an evil midwife in the practice of medicine. I wonder how many lab teste were done under the influence of advertising. Or maybe, how many wild goose chases patients and doctors went on because an ad sold them a diagnosis they should have never pursued.Or, worse, I wonder how many prescriptions were written solely on the strength of consumer demand instead of on the careful study of the medical practitioner.
I know that most countries worldwide has banned direct to consumer advertising. I could never understand why the US hasn’t bothered to do so.
When the question is why, the answer is money….or in this case lobbyists, fringe benefits, and honoraria.
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