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Vioxx Withdrawal Highlights Potential Problems With Prescription
Drug Advertising13 Oct 2004
With
Merck's recent withdrawal of arthritis medication Vioxx from the
market, "prescription drug promotions of all kinds -- the celebrity
pitches, the glossy television and magazine ads, the freebies to
doctors -- are likely to come under new scrutiny as patients,
researchers and consumer groups question both their honesty and
their ultimate public cost," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising "helped
boost Vioxx sales to astounding heights," with Merck spending $49
million on ads for the drug from January through July, according to
the Inquirer.
Between 1996 -- the year prior to FDA's
relaxing of TV and radio prescription drug ad rules -- and 2003, the
drug industry's direct-to-consumer ad spending increased from $791
million to $3.2 billion, according to IMS Health, the Inquirer
reports.
In 2003, industry promotional spending, including
consumer advertising, no-cost drug samples, "educational" trips and
drug representative visits to physicians, totaled $25 billion.
During roughly the same period, prescription drug expenses increased
two to five times more than spending on hospital care and physician
services, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Connection Between Ad Spending, Consumer
Buying
Some critics say that it is "no coincidence ...
that as promotional spending soars, so does spending on drugs -- by
consumers who are both paying higher drug prices and being
encouraged to buy drugs they never used before," the Inquirer
reports (Vrazo, Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/10).
Many
physicians say that when a patient requests a prescription drug by
name, they are "unlikely to say no ... as long as it does not seem
wholly inappropriate for the condition," partly because they are
"too pressed for time" to explore alternatives and "do not want to
alienate patients who can take their business elsewhere," the New
York Times reports. Mary Frank, a family physician in California,
said that some patients also favor prescription drugs over OTC
medications because health plans generally cover prescriptions.
Presidential Candidates' Positions
Democratic
presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's (Mass.) campaign "blames
the ad-driven demand for pushing up spending on pricey drugs, which
contribute to double-digit inflation in the nation's health care
costs," the Times reports.
Megan Hauck, deputy policy
director for President Bush's re-election campaign, said Democrats
are "exaggerating the issue" because a 2002 Government
Accountability Office report found the drug industry spent "far
more" on no-cost drug samples than on direct-to-consumer ads,
according to the Times.
Changes in Regulations
Proposed
FDA is considering a proposal to allow drug
makers to simplify magazine and newspaper ads to make them "more
reader-friendly," according to the Times. Under the proposal, drug
companies would be able to summarize the most important or most
common side effects in large type; currently, they must list
detailed data about benefits and risks, which are often printed in
small type (Elliott/Ives, New York Times, 10/12).
http://www.kaisernetwork.org
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