Regulations of Prescription Drug Advertising

If the company were to send sales representatives to doctors offices around the country, they could mention that their drug is one of the few FDA-approved weight loss drugs with clinical results to back up weight-loss claims[4]. The sales people could also mention that unlike other weight-loss pills, some prescription drug plans would cover the cost of prescribing the pill to patients (with hopefully more to come after a 6-month sales evaluation).

Despite this, the industry did not alter its ways, maintaining that its ad campaigns were "educational," and that people were able to make their own decisions about what they purchased (Payer 66). However, it is evident that the advertisements produced by the pharmaceutical industry are designed for the very purpose of making it difficult for people to make these decisions independently. This marketing produces a large number of often deceptive, misleading tactics which have a large influence on both consumers and medical practitioners. The chief beneficiaries of this marketing are not the consumers but the pharmaceutical companies themselves.

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).”

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.

DTC prescription drug ads raise people’s awareness of possible health issues and encourage them to seek medical advice they might not get otherwise. Knowledge is power, and DTC ads help people become educated about drugs, medical conditions, and

The Prescription Drug Marketing Act of 1987 was signed into law on April 22nd 1988. The law was made to protect people from the purchasing and consuming tampered products. This includes counterfeit, adulterated, misbranded, or expired drugs. The FDA takes a special point to monitor counterfeit medication. Lately there are many serious counterfeit drugs that have been killing people. One example is that they have been finding many counterfeit drugs that contain fentanyl. Because this is such a potent pain killer people are accidentally overdosing.

Establishing credibility as an author should be accomplished in order to create a reliable environment for the audience. In this advertisement, the author chooses to use ethos as a rhetorical appeal. In this case ethos is conveyed to the audience by the use of the author’s credentials. By using the credentials “The Real Cost,” the intended audience can be assured that what is on this advertisement is from a credible source. Many individuals are aware and have seen a photo with “The Real Cost” on it before and know that it is published by the FDA. The FDA “is responsible for

S.959—Pharmaceutical Compounding Quality, Security and Accountability Act, was introduced into the U.S Senate May 15, 2013 by Thomas Harkin, Democratic senator of Iowa, along with the support of five cosponsors. The bill, if it’d passed would have amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to expand the regulation of compounded drugs. It would have allowed the Federal Government to oversee drug compounders’ operations to ensure drug quality and safety. Most recently, the bill was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee but never made it to the floor for a vote. Supporters of S.959 were both Republicans and Democrats. This bill was a bipartisan effort. There was opposition to this bill from the

Ever since the legalization of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising in 1985, drug companies have grown and greatly increased their spending, making this the most popular type of health communication to the general public. From 1996 to 2005, the total amount of spending on pharmaceutical advertisements increased by 3252 million dollars and the percentage of drug sales increased by 1.4 percent (New England Journal of Medicine). This positive increase in sales is why the United States allows for these advertisements to be aired, they bring in revenue and as people become more sick, they will continue to buy more drugs and increase the revenue. However, even with all this spending, after observing hours of television on three different channels, I found it surprising on the limited amounts of pharmaceutical advertisements that were presented. For the network CBS, there were three drug advertisements, for CNN there were four and for the network AMC, there were only two of the same commercial. This trend shows how different airing times affect different populations of people. I watched CNN at 11:30 in the morning, a more common

Advertisements have one primary purpose that is to persuade. Prescription medications Ads tell the consumers to get treatment and also imply that they have the need for it to solve their problems. Since prescription Ads have been introduced, the pharmaceutical

Dr. Nestle and Dr. Ludwig bring up the issue of misleading labels on the front of many packages. Most claims are not proven scientifically but are still being placed on the front packaging of many products. “Front-of-Package Food Labels Public Health of Propaganda,” brings up how the the legislation passed by Congress throughout the 19th century has impacted the FDA’s ability to regulate misleading claims on food labels.

Pharmaceutical companies use direct to consumer advertisement to present their drug as effective by means of promotional visuals, symbols and language that appeal to women and attract a large customer base. I want to know if women are the targeted for prescription drugs on television commercials, video commercials on the internet and magazines, also known as in direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertisement. If so, I would like to see the effects this has on not only women but the public’s perception of women and pharmaceutical drugs that treat diseases, specifically mental health diseases.

In the United States, a drug can only be advertised legally after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Once attaining at least one FDA-approved use, physicians can prescribe a drug for other unapproved uses, based on their clinical judgment; this is referred to as “off-label use” (McCambridge, 2008). In general, marketing drugs for off-label uses is illegal; however, pharmaceutical companies have gone to various lengths within their legal rights to accomplish exactly that.

The Impact of Pseudoscience on Consumers Pseudoscience is known by many as false science. Many consumers are convinced by companies that sells these products provide instant cures that lead to a healthier lifestyle. These products are scientific theories that have little evidence to back up their scientific claims. The Internet, health food stores, magazines, and commercials are just a few ways that companies can target potential consumers to sell their products. Medical information searched by consumers via the Internet has become the largest source of information worldwide. Consumers search the Internet for weight loss strategies, treatments for autism, anti-aging creams, male enhancement, and prevention of cancer and heart

Prescription drug advertisements have a negative impact on Americans by causing them to become hypochondriacs in a certain way. A hypochondriac is someone who believes and becomes obsessed with the idea that they have a serious condition that was and is undiagnosed. This problem continues to have a negative affect because it can lead to unnecessarily prescribing. Patients are going into their doctors and they are requesting to be put on these drugs because of the great affects that they have heard that they do for them. In the article, Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising, the author states that in a study done over this and the results were that, when these request were made at about 40 percent of doctor visits and during this time more