The Drug Advertising Debate

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Facing a Powerful Drug Lobby

Some lawmakers seeking to muzzle the endless stream of "ask your doctor" pitches believe that doing so will not only protect consumers but will preserve the rights of physicians to make the best decisions for patients. "If I ask for Viagra six times, I might get a prescription," Stark says. "Doctors are getting pressure from people who don't have the ability to make decisions about whether these drugs are good for them or not." Stark, a longtime critic of the health-care industry, tried to introduce legislation to limit drug advertising a couple of years ago. But now that the power is shifting toward the Democrats, he thinks he might have a good shot of getting it through this time. "We could never get a hearing with Republicans," he says.

Stark will face tough opposition from the powerful drug lobby. The industry's trade group, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), believes drug ads benefit public health by encouraging people to see their doctors about conditions they might not otherwise know they can treat. Safety shouldn't be a concern, says Scott Lassman, PhRMA's senior assistant general counsel. "Our feeling is that when a drug is approved, the FDA has already made an assessment that it is safe."

Perhaps, but sometimes the FDA doesn't recognize safety issues until long after drugs hit the market. In the past year the agency has demanded that tough new warnings about side effects be added to all insomnia and depression drugs. That means that Lunesta, Ambien CR, and Cymbalta might have been introduced to American consumers with more complete information about their risks, had their manufacturers refrained from advertising the drugs for three years after they launched them.

Leaving Out Key Facts

Some experts say the lack of safety information is part of a bigger problem with drug advertising. Dominick Frosch, assistant professor of medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles, studied drug ads earlier this year and concluded that they often leave out key pieces of information that would help people make better choices about their health care. For example, most of the ads don't say how many people suffer from the conditions the drugs are meant to treat, nor do they explain what causes the diseases. Instead, "the ads are driven by appeals to peoples' emotions," says Frosch. "Doctors would prefer that decisions be driven by rational choices."

In most of the rest of the world, safety concerns still outweigh free-speech rights when it comes to drug advertising. A couple of years ago, efforts by some legislators in New Zealand to outlaw drug ads failed, just as they did here. Question is, will the lure of all those advertising dollars prompt other countries to open their airwaves to drug companies? CanWest MediaWorks, one of Canada's largest media conglomerates, is suing that country's attorney general for the right to accept drug ads. Among CanWest's allegations: The government is causing it to lose millions in potential ad revenues.

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Weintraub is the associate editor in science and technology for BusinessWeek.