Unless you pay the premium price for ad-free streaming services, you’ve seen advertisements for drugs like Ozempic, Skyrizi, and Otezla, complete with product claims, long lists of possible side effects, and plenty of fine print, plus encouragement to “ask your doctor if it’s right for you.”
The United States and New Zealand are the only high-income countries that allow pharmaceutical companies to market prescription drugs directly to consumers like this. In the U.S., such ads are regulated by the FDA to ensure that all statements made in the ads are accurate and supported by clinical trials, but the advertising itself is otherwise treated like any other marketing effort.
In other countries, direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs is either banned or severely limited. In Canada, for example, companies can inform consumers of very basic information about a prescription drug — including its scientific name, its common name, and its usual price — but cannot make any claims about the drug’s effects or even what it treats. Such ads simply serve to remind consumers that the drug is available; medical professionals bear the responsibility of connecting their patients with the right treatments.
Debates for and against pharmaceutical DTCA touch on issues of freedom of speech, capitalism, public safety, self-determination, and medical ethics. What do you think?
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Comments
I believe medical professionals should be offering drugs as possible treatment alternatives…ads showing prospective users of these drugs smiling, dancing and seemingly much improved are misleading…
Shouldn’t a Doctor be telling you about a
drug that might be beneficial ?
Drug companies are pushing product to
make $ . It’s BIG Business
Voted to limit them more, but not really sure what that would mean in practice. Surely the ads are effective to public health on some level, but on the other hand is the right kind of attention being paid to them, especially at this point? Seems like these advertised medications come and go after a couple years anyway, maybe to return slightly tweaked with a newly outlandish brand name.