Greedy Trial Lawyer
Welcome To The Drug Channel, 24 Hour Pill Pushing
Category: Right On!
I am more convinced than ever that the time is right for The Drug Channel, 24 hours a day of nothing but commercials for prescription drugs. The scroll bar at the bottom of the screen can continuously run the necessary disclaimers and "ask your physician" nonsense. The ads could expand gradually into music videos, game and talk shows and even live athletic events [The Boston Restless Leg Marathon would be a winner].
Why am I so confident that all of this is just around the corner? Read on.
More Frequent Dose of Dollars for Drug Ads
Drugmakers' spending on consumer advertising is growing faster than their total spending on marketing, a new study finds.It has been a decade since new federal regulations allowed drug companies to start pitching prescription medications on TV. Yet despite the controversy that has arisen from this direct-to-consumer (DTC) promotion, spending on such ads continues to grow faster than spending on drug-industry marketing as a whole. So say the authors of a study set to be published in the Aug. 16 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
DTC ad spending has grown on average 14% a year since 2002--to $4.2 billion a year--while total promotional spending is up about 9% a year to $30 billion, according to the study, which was a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University.
The spike in spending comes just as the U.S. Food & Drug Administration seems to be easing up on its oversight of pharmaceutical company advertising. In 1997, the FDA sent 142 letters warning pharma companies that their ads violated federal laws governing how they communicate the balance between risks and benefits. In 2006, the agency sent just 22 such letters.
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