Greedy Trial Lawyer
Take These Drug Ads And Get Plenty Of Sleep
Category: The Latest Baddest
Americans sit virtually alone in the industrialized world in front of incessant television ads extolling the wonders of prescription drugs. Aren't we lucky?
By Arlene Weintraub, Business WeekSome members of Congress want to limit Big Pharma's ability to promote products directly to consumers. But the roadblocks are high.
If Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) had his way, the little butterfly used to advertise the insomnia remedy Lunesta might not be allowed to flutter all over our TV screens, as it has incessantly since the drug was approved in late 2004. Waxman believes the U.S. Food & Drug Administration should be able to forbid companies from advertising directly to consumers until new drugs have been on the market for at least three years.
Critics are increasingly concerned that the ads encourage consumers to demand drugs they don't need, and in the process put themselves at risk of suffering dangerous side effects. A moratorium on advertising, some say, would give the FDA and drugmakers more time to understand the risks a particular drug poses before they plaster it all over the media.
Only one other country in the world--New Zealand--allows drug companies to market their products directly to consumers. All others deem it too dangerous.
However unusual, marketing drugs to consumers has become a huge business. Since 1997, when the FDA relaxed the rules on Big Pharma's television marketing, drug advertising surged to $5.3 billion in 2006, up 14% from 2005, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Ad spending in the pharma sector grew faster than that of any other industry among the top 10 spenders, including autos and telecom.
Who cares about drug safety or overuse of new drugs when there is over $5 billion to be made by advertisers and zillions of dollars to be made on each brand new wonder drug!
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