Author Topic: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads  (Read 1018 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Consumer By Rebecca Styles 5/11/2023

Leading health experts are calling on the government to ban direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription medicines in the Therapeutic Products Bill.

In a New Zealand Medical Journal article, the experts say getting rid of the ads will “promote population health” while reducing over-diagnosis, over-treatment and patient harm.

The experts say the government’s arguments for keeping DTCA in the bill don’t stack up with international research, and “bear similarity to those advanced by Medicines New Zealand, a body representing the pharmaceutical industry.”

We agree DTCA should be banned – we’ve been calling for a ban for years.

We think DTCA should be banned because the ads:

•   don’t give consumers all the information they need to make an informed decision

•   increase the risk of over prescribing and health risks for consumers

•   create extra cost to the consumer and the health system

•   aren’t being regulated effectively within the industry

•   are banned in most countries – New Zealand and the United States are the only developed countries that still have it.

More: https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/experts-say-it-s-time-to-ban-direct-to-consumer-drug-ads

Online Wingnut

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2023, 01:00:06 pm »
Get the attorney ads off too.
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Offline mountaineer

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2023, 01:16:48 pm »
The ads are ridiculous and very annoying. Do not take this drug if you're allergic to it! It may kill you!
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Offline Kamaji

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2023, 02:07:22 pm »
I doubt if they can be banned outright in the U.S.

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2023, 05:01:57 pm »
I doubt if they can be banned outright in the U.S.
It does make me wonder what the 'news' would have looked like if the Pharma ads hadn't been a significant source of media revenue during and post COVID.
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Offline Hoodat

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2023, 05:07:33 pm »
Leading health experts are calling on the government to ban direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription medicines in the Therapeutic Products Bill.

In other words, put it back the way it was before Bill Clinton changed it.
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Offline Hoodat

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2023, 05:08:00 pm »
I doubt if they can be banned outright in the U.S.

They can.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

-Dwight Eisenhower-


"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."

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Offline Kamaji

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2023, 05:11:34 pm »
They can.

On what basis?  Commercial speech is entitled to some degree of First Amendment protection, provided that it is not misleading.

Offline Hoodat

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2023, 05:16:33 pm »
On what basis?  Commercial speech is entitled to some degree of First Amendment protection, provided that it is not misleading.

First off, the government owns the airwaves.  They place restrictions on what goes on it.  For example, you can't run ads laced with profanity, nudity, etc.  Secondly, pharmaceuticals are regulated.  They are not universally legal products.  Use of these products is already restricted by the FDA.

Big Pharma can still advertise in trade journals, magazines, etc.  They just can't use the government-owned airwaves to do it.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

-Dwight Eisenhower-


"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."

-Ayn Rand-

Offline Kamaji

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2023, 05:18:27 pm »
First off, the government owns the airwaves.  They place restrictions on what goes on it.  For example, you can't run ads laced with profanity, nudity, etc.  Secondly, pharmaceuticals are regulated.  They are not universally legal products.  Use of these products is already restricted by the FDA.

Big Pharma can still advertise in trade journals, magazines, etc.  They just can't use the government-owned airwaves to do it.

If you say so, chief.

Offline Hoodat

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #10 on: May 25, 2023, 05:26:02 pm »
You asked for the basis.  I gave it to you.  You may not like it, but that's how it was before Clinton took office.  It's how they took cigarette ads off air.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

-Dwight Eisenhower-


"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."

-Ayn Rand-

Offline DefiantMassRINO

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #11 on: May 25, 2023, 05:33:34 pm »
By virtue of the ads that appear while watching TV, I'm a uncrontrollably twitching bi-polar morbidly obese diabetic with bulging eyes, erectile dysfunction, hair loss, a forhead that needs Botox, with a need for relief for heartburn, indigestion, and diarrhea.

Man, according to TV, I need to be taken to the veterinarian to be euthanized.
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Offline Kamaji

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #12 on: May 25, 2023, 06:01:49 pm »
You asked for the basis.  I gave it to you.  You may not like it, but that's how it was before Clinton took office.  It's how they took cigarette ads off air.

Cigarettes are different from medicines.  Was the cigarette ban ever challenged in court?

Offline DefiantMassRINO

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #13 on: May 25, 2023, 06:33:40 pm »
That bastid Bubba Clinton and his "Surgeon General" put Joe Camel out of a job in the early 1990s.
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #14 on: May 25, 2023, 07:36:08 pm »
On what basis?  Commercial speech is entitled to some degree of First Amendment protection, provided that it is not misleading.
Tell that to the tobacco companies.
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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #15 on: May 25, 2023, 07:45:42 pm »
Cigarettes are different from medicines.  Was the cigarette ban ever challenged in court?
You may say cigarettes aren't a drug, (nicotine is), but watch wounded guys smoking in the old documentaries and newsreels of WWII. Why? Nicotine constricts the peripheral blood vessels (forcing blood to the core organs), and is a stimulant which elevates blood pressure.

Those cigarettes helped ward off shock. I have seen the same with car accident victims, whether they have physical injuries, of the shock is psychological from the accident.

But tobacco is hard to patent. Until there were scads of strains of hybrid weed out there, it wasn't made legal either, even for medicinal purposes. See the pattern yet?

They aren't advertising generics, but cash cows.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2023, 07:46:53 pm by Smokin Joe »
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Kamaji

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2023, 07:50:43 pm »
Tell that to the tobacco companies.

The cigarette companies agreed to give up all advertising as part of the global settlement in the tobacco litigation cases:

Quote
In settling with the various states in the so-called Master Settlement Agreement, the tobacco companies made a series of commitments, including the abandonment of advertising campaigns like Joe Camel and the production of public service announcements on the potentially hazardous nature of smoking. Through the settlement, the states achieved an outcome that effectively prohibited tobacco companies from undertaking certain forms of speech while simultaneously compelling the companies to undertake certain other forms of speech.

Source:  https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1121/tobacco-advertising

However, in other contexts, the Supreme Court has held that tobacco companies do have commercial First Amendment rights to advertise their products.  Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly (2001).

Quote
The Court found that other state regulations were subject to the test the Court developed for commercial speech in Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980), which required governments to show that a speech restriction directly and materially advances an asserted interest and that there is a reasonable fit between the legislative ends and means chosen to accomplish them.

Although O’Connor found sufficient reason for the regulations, she found that many did not meet the last part of the Central Hudson test.

She also found that the proposed restrictions on outdoor advertising would have prevented advertising in many of Massachusetts’ main cities. Similarly, she invalidated rules requiring that stores put cigarettes on shelves higher than five feet from the floor.

Source:  https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/205/lorillard-tobacco-co-v-reilly

So, in summary, even tobacco companies enjoy certain First Amendment rights with respect to their commercial speech - i.e., advertising - and these rules can be expected to extend to the advertising of prescription medications by drug companies.


Offline Kamaji

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #17 on: May 25, 2023, 07:53:55 pm »
In fact, banning direct-to-consumer ads for medications has been considered before, and the constitutional impediments to such bans considered in learned commentary, to wit:  https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078080

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #18 on: May 25, 2023, 08:03:56 pm »
With the density of Pharma ads I have seen, even on free streaming channels, I have to question whether those channels primarily selling a 'news product' are influenced as to content by their advertisers who represent considerable revenue for the brand.

The entire COVID narrative could have been sold from three Pharma outfits, and the attack on well established drugs available in generic form which have proven to be beneficial may have been influenced by that. Hydroxychloroquine was presented as if it was more deadly than remdesivir, even though people who knew folks who had been taking it for years said "WTF?". Ivermectin, the Nobel Prize winning drug that virtually eliminated River Blindness was similarly maligned.

Considering there were people all through the Medical Establishment who stood to benefit, directly or indirectly, or from the public coffers, it would have been an easy push for companies representing a sizeable share of ad revenue.

Now, you might think that to be some sort of "conspiracy theory", and I will just toss it on the pile with the idea that some options trader(s) with inside info is making a killing on puts for companies that launch woke ad campaigns. But it has been my experience that money is a common motivator and seems to overcome integrity pretty often.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline mountaineer

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #19 on: May 25, 2023, 08:20:04 pm »
I wish American TV was like European TV in one respect: in Europe, your TV viewing isn't interrupted every few minutes for several minutes of commercials (like these incessant pharma ads). You watch the whole program, then when it's over, you can sit through ten minutes or so of ads, if you want.
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #20 on: May 25, 2023, 10:12:38 pm »
I wish American TV was like European TV in one respect: in Europe, your TV viewing isn't interrupted every few minutes for several minutes of commercials (like these incessant pharma ads). You watch the whole program, then when it's over, you can sit through ten minutes or so of ads, if you want.
It might even improve Americans' health,  they'd have a few minutes to get up and move around...between shows.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline GtHawk

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #21 on: May 26, 2023, 03:51:32 am »
Meh, considering they can't stop the volume being jacked up for commercials I doubt they can do a damn thing about drug ads.

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Re: Experts say it's time to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads
« Reply #22 on: May 26, 2023, 05:21:06 am »
 :bkmk:
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