Reduction of Malpractice in Pharmaceutical Advertising

Ads for pharmaceutical drugs are everywhere. They are in magazines, on television and radio, on billboards, and on the little bags that you get from the pharmacist. These days it is difficult to get away from all the drug advertising. All these ads are for products that require a doctor's prescription. The goal of advertising is to increase profits. By advertising so heavily for drugs that the majority of the population does not need, pharmaceutical companies attempt to create as large a consumer base as they can. In advertising directly to the consumer, the drug companies accomplish two objectives. First, they get information directly to the consumer. Second, they promote the product and

"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in

During this time the first DTC print advertisement for Merck an “antipneumococcal vaccine, Pneumovax(pneumococcal vaccine polyvalent) was printed in Reader’s Digest (Ventola).” That created a chain effect and shortly later “Boots Pharmaceuticals ran the first DTC broadcast advertisement, which promoted the lower price of its prescription brand of ibuprofen (Rufen), compared with Motrin (Ventola).” Today, the US pharmaceutical industry spends $3.1 billion on advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers.

Anyone who has stayed up late watching television, or has paged through a current magazine, has seen advertisements for medications. They often depict an individual, or couple, that is strolling along the beach, playing with their grandchildren, or enjoying a long forgotten hobby. Although the Food and Drug Administration has imposed stricter regulations on drug advertisements over the last several years, there remains an innate distraction and misleading by the drug companies in order to promote their product. “Evidence suggests that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs increases pharmaceutical sales and both helps to avert underuse of medicines and leads to potential overuse” (Donohue, Cevasco, & Rosenthal, 2007, p. 673). This paper will critique both a prescription and over-the-counter medication advertisement, discuss the pathophysiology and mechanism of action for the gastrointestinal disorder it treats, as well as compare and contrast the two advertisements.

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

Bill Maher once mocked the aggressive nature of the drug advertisements that direct you to tell your doctor that their drug is right for you. “Tell your doctor? Shouldn’t your doctor tell you what drugs you need. When you tell your doctor isn’t he just a dealer at that point,” said Bill Maher. The American public generally trusts their government to protect them from the hidden dangers prescription and over-the-counter drugs. However, that trust isn’t fully warranted as the FDA has been featured in the GAO report of “high risk” agencies which need drastic reforms. After all, the FDA is in charge of regulating the shameless drug advertisements that inundate the airwaves.

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.

The disclosure of these payments will increase transparency of physicians’ relationship with the manufacturers. Although the Sunshine Act does not prohibit mutually beneficial exchange between health providers and the industry, the amount of money spent by the industry has been gradually declining. “When shared within the appropriate context, the data collected by the Open Payment program helps patients to learn more about industry-physician collaborations and understand how these interactions benefit their health.” Open Payment Act works to ensure that the collaborative interactions between manufacturers and physicians meet high ethical standards; they must be compliance with laws, regulations, and government guidance. With the help of

The dependency of profits to promote sales to please shareholders and research and development of new products seem to be the mindset of the pharmaceutical industry. It is without question that the pharmaceutical companies only care about making a profit more than they do to help the people of the United States. Pharmaceutical companies and doctors that represent them are only acting in their own best interest; patients are the ones who are suffering the most. With that, new information being produced it is not always being fully disclosed in the fine print, or the other option to the drugs they take, this just only helps fuel business’s.

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.

medications by convincing doctors of what is best for patients in a certain demographic based on their own altered data.The people involved in the process of educating the public on the drugs should have prior knowledge on the medications they are marketing. Due to lack of this, patients

There are existing FDA regulatory standards about truthful drug advertising and promotion. It is FDA's mission to ensure the enforcement of better communication of labeling and promotional information. The mere inclusion of disease information in promotional materials is discouraged as it is misleading. Based on a study conducted by FDA, they found out that exposure to disease information as part of DTC prescription drug ad leads people to believe that a drug treats or addresses all the conditions mentioned in the disease

Society’s role in protecting the consumers of prescription medicines is to actively play a role in the process that pharmaceutical companies follow when developing, testing and releasing new prescription meds into the market. All medication has side effects that issue warnings about what the medication can cause to your being. Physicians and patients need to both play an important role in giving the correct symptoms and doctors reading and diagnosing the patients symptoms. Doctors need to prescribe the correct medication to patients and should be very familiar with that medicine’s possible

Think about how often you are watching your favorite show on television and all of a sudden you are interrupted by a commercial. The commercial begins with the following words, “Do you suffer with …” and this question follows with the following sentence, “if so, then talk to your doctor about … (the name of the medication that is being advertised)”. These prescription drug advertisements are being shown all over the United States multiple times a day. It is these advertisements that are used for publicity and marketing that are affecting Americans. The majority of Americans engage in watching television. The prescription drug advertisements do have a positive impact on Americans but, these advertisements do more harm than good.

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