Pharmaceutical Advertising

[yellowwoodII]

We know that pharmaceuticals in the United States are overpriced compared with other countries.

I can't help but think that some of it is due to the overwhelming presence of expensive pharmaceutical ads on TV. Besides the fact that the PATiENT should not be asking for drugs without the expertise to know what he is asking for. We should expect that the doctor knows what to prescribe.

TV ads are tricky. Note the use of language. "You might even lose a little weight." "Death has happened." (Passive voice suggests that the drug has no agency.)

Drug companies should not be giving perks to doctors (Dollars for Docs) Look it up at Propublica.

Drugs are overprescribed as a first resort when other non-drug cures could be more effective. They have side-effects. Then the side-effects are counteracted by other drugs. Patients become walking chemical labs.


That's how I really feel

[WorkDoctor]

1. US is only 1 of 2 nations worldwide

Like so many other bad actions, the US is alone among the western industrialized nations (to not have national healthcare, etc.) to allow the costly ads that docs so very much resent. New Zealand is the only other.

[katmondoo]

2. In the ads everyone is soooo happy taking their drug

[Aristus]

3. You're not wrong.

As a medical provider in primary care, I'd give anything to have television advertising of pharmaceuticals banned.

It not only encourages self-diagnosing patients to ask for prescriptions they may not need, they also encourage the unnecessary prescription of expensive brand-name drugs when inexpensive generics may be just as effective. Nexium vs omeprazole or Lexapro vs citalopram, for example.

[Claritie Pixie]

4. Pharma cos. are required by law to state side effects, the ads are cleverly designed.

Beautiful people often doing fun things with soft, pretty music, or cute graphics to keep your eyes and ears from paying attention to the muted, fast-spoken negative words. Overall message: look how great your life can be if you take our drug!!! It's false advertising IMHO since most of these drugs are not 100% effective in treating a condition, are not a cure, and they can actually ruin your life.

Agree that patients shouldn't be telling their docs what to prescribe...a lot of docs are lazy though and will just give it to them if they ask.

I see them as a way to make people accept drugs as benign and just a part of life. It's rather insidious.

[Vinca]

5. My husband swears he heard one commercial say "stop using if death occurs."

[Ohiogal]

7. Or

"Fatal side effects may occur." That's one HELL of a "side effect"!!

It makes my blood boil, too, when we see this constant barrage of drug ads. I really believe it should be outlawed.

[Siwsan]

6. Never seemed a good idea to advertise something with side effects worse than the disease

the drug is meant to treat!! I've started to just mute them all out.

[RKP5637]

8. Often living in multimillionaire homes, on the coast, beautiful views and/or

walking on estates and/or stunning panoramic views of the countryside. What a crock of sh**!!! Take this pill that might well kill you, but look at how you're going to live too! One of my friends that had to take some of this stuff looked like hell and almost died a couple of times. The ads are often so far removed from reality. ... like dealers selling drugs.

[Hoyt]

9. I don't like drug ads; but, they do allow one to go to the doctor with some knowledge

about treatment. My experience tells me not to let docs decide what you need. It’s better to have some idea.

With that said, most drug ads are for something that is a small tweak from much cheaper medications.

One of the few things I support from trump Admin, requiring drug companies to include cost in ads

[yellowwoodII]

14. However...

Ads don't give knowledge. They are there to sell.

Some of us remember tobacco ads. They would sometimes show physicians recommending certain kinds of cigarettes.

[hunter]

10. Pharmaceutical advertising ought to be a felony.

.

[UpInArms]

11. Some back history on pharmaceutical advertising

The FDA decided in 1997 to relax its rules. In their TV spots, drug makers could now refer viewers to print ads, offer 1-800 numbers or websites, and urge people to talk to their doctor if they wanted that additional information that the FDA had previously required for TV ads, too, if they promoted particular drugs for particular conditions. That let drug makers air more detailed ads that made specific medical claims for specific drugs, the kind that now dominate airwaves.

“All of these changes together created a market situation where the industry wanted to move in this direction,” said Meredith Rosenthal, a health economist at Harvard University who has studied direct-to-consumer advertising, “and they basically pushed regulators to clarify these issues.”

The industry had won. Spending on all direct-to-consumer advertising ballooned from $360 million in 1995 to $1.3 billion in 1998. By 2006, it hit $5 billion, and most of that was on television commercials.

More here The untold story of TV’s first prescription drug ad

[CharleyDog]

12. Purdue pharma instructed doctors and nurses that patients using their

powerful pain med OxyContin (a synthetic opioid) could not get addicted if their pain was actual, (that is, if they had real pain and were not taking the med for the narcotic "high&quot .
Which is total bullshit. And they knew this. But everyone was taught that it was OK to prescribe this med, ignoring the profound addiction rate that occurred and that which led to heroin use, heroin surge in mainstream America, and the synthetic opioid use death epidemic that we have now.

from the CDC:
Drugs Involved in U.S. Overdose Deaths* - Among the more than 72,000 drug overdose deaths estimated in 2017*, the sharpest increase occurred among deaths related to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids) with nearly 30,000 overdose deaths. Source: CDC WONDER

[gratuitous]

13. It doesn't pay to think too much about this

I'm curious how many people we're really talking about for any particular prescription drug. A million? 10 mlllion? 500? I have no idea. I just googled rheumatoid arthritis, one of the maladies often mentioned in these ads: 1.3 million people have the diagnosis, and approximately 41 out of every 100,000 Americans gets that diagnosis every year. Why not just send them a postcard? Far cheaper and more targeted.

Instead, the drug companies take out 90 second or two minute ads on the national evening news programs, which I think is probably some of the most expensive ad time on television. And during those extended ads, they spend a good two-thirds of the time talking about potential side effects, or offering silly suggestions like, "Tell your doctor if you've ever had a heart attack." I hope a heart attack is prominently mentioned in every one of my medical records, as well as every prescription I'm on.

We know what's behind all this, and we know that we're powerless to do anything about it.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. "we know that we're powerless to do anything about it"

As long as Americans worship capitalism and the winners of that game.