U.S. senator urges voluntary limits on drug ads
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Drug makers should voluntarily ban
consumer-directed advertisements for new prescription medicines
for the first two years after their launch, Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist said on Friday.
Frist also called on manufacturers to better balance
portrayals of risks and benefits in their television, magazine
and newspaper ads. He said he would support congressional
action to protect consumers if voluntary efforts were too weak.
“Advertising should boldly and responsibly address safety
head-on, replacing the upbeat fantasy land images with a frank
discussion of a product’s risks and benefits,” the Tennessee
Republican said on the Senate floor.
Frist also requested a probe by the Government
Accountability Office into regulatory oversight of the ads and
their potential impact on medication use, health-care costs and
patient awareness of diseases and treatments.
Drug makers are working on voluntary guidelines to blunt
criticism that their ads exaggerate benefits, gloss over side
effects and lead to unnecessary prescriptions. Bristol-Myers
Squibb Co. said in June it would wait a year after launch of a
drug before advertising it to consumers.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America,
the drug industry’s U.S. lobbying group, defended
consumer-directed advertising as a way to raise awareness of
treatments.
“Educational advertising empowers patients to seek guidance
from their doctors which can lead to earlier detection and
treatment of diseases,” said Ken Johnson, spokesman for the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Frist, a heart transplant surgeon, said the two-year ban
was necessary because “doctors and patients need time … to be
able to assess the benefits and know more about the risks” of
new medicines.
Drug makers should be required to receive FDA approval for
an ad before it runs, Frist said, adding that regulators needed
more funding to review the thousands of drug-company promotions
aimed at consumers each year.