American Medical Association calls for end to US DTC advertising
The American Medical Association has announced it is seeking an official ban on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of pharmaceuticals and implantable medical devices, at its conference in Atlanta, following several years of internal debate. Concerns surrounding DTC cited by the AMA include inflated drug prices, patient confusion and off-label usage of drugs. Criticising the current state of DTC advertising, Lisa Schwartz, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice said "People need to be educated on the benefits and harms, but that’s not what drug ads do." A further criticism of DTC advertising is that is wastes doctor's scarce and valuable time by having patients consult their doctor needlessly, after having seen a drug commercial. Currently, only New Zealand and the USA have regulations that permit DTC advertising of pharmaceuticals. 

Having a bad day? Chances are you’re clinically depressed.

Or at least that’s what drug companies might have you thinking after viewing some of the overly broad, vague commercials pushing various pharmaceuticals. The American Medical Association has officially had enough with direct-to-consumer advertising for drugs and devices (after years of struggle with the situation) and is looking to put an official ban in place. This was announced in Atlanta at an AMA conference.

“We want to spend our time diagnosing and treating patients, not rebutting marketing claims,” Michael Miller, a delegate of the Wisconsin Medical Society, argued at the meeting, according to Bloomberg.

“Drugs aren’t like everything else, people don’t need to be sold on the newest and brightest drug,” Lisa Schwartz, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, told BuzzFeed News. “People need to be educated on the benefits and harms, but that’s not what drug ads do.”

It would take an act from Congress for this to go through, but the AMA believes that such abundant marketing budgets are part of the reasons that drug prices in the U.S. are as high as they are.

And the AMA isn’t the only concerned party. According to a Kaiser Family Health Foundation poll, 89 percent of those surveyed believe that the FDA should be responsible for approving drug ads before they are. Unfortunately as things stand right now, the agency can’t provide input or intervene until there is a complaint from consumers.

A change in advertising might make a significant difference, but as Joel Lexchin, a professor in the School of Health Policy and Management at York University, told BuzzFeed News, what’s going to have an even bigger impact is addressing how drugs are being marketed to physicians.

“In dollar figures the amount of money spent promoting drugs to doctors is 10 times more than the amount spent on [advertising],” Lexchin said. “And doctors are the ones who make the ultimate decision about what drugs to prescribe.”

Chances are most cable subscribers have seen this one: