Legal and Ethical Consideration in Marketing, Product Safety, and Intellectual Property

There are proponents of DTC prescription drug ads. They argue that “the ads inform patients about diseases and possible treatments, encourage people to seek medical advice, help remove stigma associated with medical conditions, and provide needed sales revenue to fund costly research and development (R&D) of new drugs (Drug Ads ProCon.org).” On the flip side opponents argue “that DTC drug ads misinform patients, promote drugs before long-term safety-profiles can be known, medicalize and stigmatize normal conditions and bodily functions like wrinkles and low testosterone, waste valuable medical appointment time, and have led to our society’s overuse of prescription drugs (Drug Ads ProCon.org).”

The twenty-first century has seen pharmaceutical companies grow in unprecedented size and strength. Due to the unprecedented growth the larger pharmaceutical companies have gained leverage and power in the prescription drug industry, but they lack innovation to market and they seek ways to help the business continue to increase its profits. The pharmaceutical industry was once ethically sound and was a valuable player in the development of human health. However, overtime with the lack of innovation pharmaceutical companies are becoming an unethical market that exploits patients, doctors and anyone else it can to increase its profitability. With eyes only on profitability this can create a hazard for patients because there

The pharmaceutical industry along with the manufacturers of healthcare products and technologies often encourage the misappropriation and distribution of marginally beneficial products and technologies in the healthcare industry. These companies often use various advertising methods to influence members of the public to request their products and services without adequate knowledge of their effectiveness and implications to their medical condition.

In Marcia Angell’s book, The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to do About It, she reveals to readers the truth about what the pharmaceutical drug companies do to make money and how it effects us as customers and patients. Angell shows through her use of facts from credible sources and her use of statistic and knowledge on the subject that the pharmaceutical industry has transformed into one that is more profit based than one that is trying to help out people with innovative medication.

(Herzberg 106.3: 408-10). This has become the norm. People take prescription drugs; lifestyle change is far more difficult than popping a pill. Direct to consumer advertising of prescription medication undermines a physicians authority. They went to medical school and passed rigorous testing to become a physician, prescription drug advertising is an insult to physicians. A physician takes an oath, “To do no harm”. They are compromised with the current advertising conundrum, knowing that if a patient does not get the prescription they want from them, they will simply seek another doctor. Drug seekers exist, and without prescription drug advertising they would still exist. Yet the United States is creating new drug seekers by allowing prescription

One of the biggest problems with direct to consumer advertising is the dangerous medicalizing of our citizens. Medicalization: To take a normal human condition and turn it into a medical condition that needs to be treated. At issue with opponents of DTCA is the belief that the advertisements gloss over the (sometimes-serious) side effects. These ads portray the message of happy and carefree people whose lives are better because of these drugs. The ubiquitous ads promote these drugs to the exclusion of any natural remedies or simple lifestyle changes

The Pharmaceutical industry has been in the spotlight for decades due to the fact that they have a reputation for being unethical in its marketing strategies. In The Washington Post Shannon Brownlee (2008) states, “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow.” This honorable statement is completely lost in today’s world of pharmaceutical marketing tactics. These tactics are often deceptive and biased. Big Pharma consistently forgets their moral purpose and focuses primarily on the almighty dollar. Big Pharma is working on restoring their reputation by reforming their ethical code of conduct.

Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) marketing of prescription drugs in America has been debatable. DTC marketing has its benefits and disadvantages. There has been much discussion with DTC marketing over the role of consumers in medical decision making, the appropriateness of consumers engaging in self-diagnosis, and the ethics of an industry promoting potentially harmful drugs. Drug marketing and federal policy governing drug marketing have both responded to and reinforced changes in the consumer's role in health care and in the doctor patient relationship over time. A benefit of direct marketing of prescription drugs is that patients have a direct route of being informed instead of having to visit the doctors and have a third party involved. DTC allows

Pharmaceutical companies are receiving negative allegations due to the “off-label” advertising of drugs. The Federal and Drug Administration require strict regulations for the use of “off-label” drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. “Off-label” practice of drugs are not prohibited, however, promoting the drugs are illegal. The concern of effective treatment is weighing the benefits and risks of “off-label” drugs for the best interest of the patient. In addition, companies who fail to comply with the FDA regulations, face consequences such as costly fines as well as criminal issues. Pharmaceutical companies often settle with the government, due to lack of proper procedures, complying with public health agencies. Modifying the policies of pharmaceutical companies with a different approach will limit the misuse of “off-label” drugs (Ghillyer, 2014).

The pharmaceutical sector of the healthcare system is a very important one. Patients with illnesses interact with members of the drug dispensing profession far more frequently and for longer periods of time than they do with other health practitioners such as Primary Care Physicians, Nurses and Surgeons. Therefore, the conduct and behavior of pharmacy professional should be monitored and reviewed with just as much, if not more scrutiny as the idealized healthcare professional. In addition, the prescription benefit management (PBM) industry is a highly competitive one. With companies, both foreign and domestic, scrambling to gain market share of a highly profitable, guidelines need to be emplaced and enforced to prevent businesses from acting in ways the prioritizes profit over patient care. Prior to 2011, PBMs were monitored at the state level under the Department of Insurance (Shepherd, 2103). However, the regulation and ethical considerations are now under the American

Also prescription drug advertisements soften relationships between patients and healthcare provider’s. Edlin (2015) states that “About eighty of doctors researched in Apr. 2013 thought DTC prescription drug ads weakened doctor-patient connections.” Patients that watch television that show an advertised drug patients think that will solve their problems often ignore a doctor’s advice if the doctor uses a different solution. After being denied the requested for the drug, almost half of patients surveyed were not happy with their doctors, about a quarter responded that they would try to make the doctor prescribe the wanted medication or get the drug somewhere else, and said they would probably change to a different doctor. If a patient is not

Compounding addresses the large concerns of parents over their children, premature infant, the elderly and other special needs patients. Compounding offers different methods like liquids, lollipops, fast-dissolving troches, oral inhalation, nasal administration, rectal and transdermal use. Compounding can also take out preservatives which are commonly found among commercially prepared drugs.

PharmaCARE has been the leader in the industry of healthcare. The ethical aspects of the business were not

Ethics in marketing is values and principals that regulate business practices for marketers who promote products or consumer services. In today’s society, false advertising and marketing practices are trending. This writer has chosen the topic of false advertisement and marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies. Marketing by pharmaceutical companies are often called pharma marketing or medico marketing. Other than the United States, New Zealand is the only other country that allows advertising drugs directly to consumers. According to PEW Charitable trust organization, an overwhelming “$3 billion dollars was spent in 2012 for advertising directly to consumers, and $24 billion dollars on marketing directly to the physicians who prescribe the drugs’. In 1983 the FDA offered its first guidance on consumer directed advertisements and in 2001

Pharmaceutical companies should attempt to be as transparent as possible when marketing prescription drugs to the public. Their marketing efforts should not only convey the benefits of the prescription drug, but also easily convey the possible risks associated with the prescription drugs. Many patients may tend to think the benefits outweigh the potential risks of prescription drugs and may pressure their physician to prescribe it. Due to the way the prescription drug is marketed, the consumer may believe the