I am stunned at Ad Age’s latest editorial.
“A one- or two-year moratorium
on DTC advertising of new drugs is a good step to take now.”
Why?? Ad Age’s opinion is shockingly groundless. Apparently,
the FDA wants consumers to try the drugs – but, I guess, not too many. So if
something goes wrong in the initial release, fewer consumers will suffer
adverse affects. Is that the rationale? Well, if so, then as a nation, we have
to seriously re-examine our drug approval policies and practices.
This posture is an outright proxy for the FDA saying “We
think the new drug is ok – but we aren’t totally sure – so we’ll try it out in
market and hope no one gets hurt. And just to be sure we don’t mess up too much,
let’s not advertise the product so the impact will be small.”
My goodness. What disjointed logic. So Ad Age believes that
advertisers must now assume responsibility for fixing a sub-optimum FDA new
drug approval process. Hmmm. That certainly increases my confidence in the FDA.
And I am surprised that Ad Age seems to want us to believe
that it’s better to let very few people know about a possible medical solution
for their ailments – than to have a responsible conversation with their
physician about alternatives. Well to quote from my colleague Dan Jaffe’s blog:
· “Surveys carried out by the FDA and Prevention
Magazine found that more than 23 million Americans went to their doctors to
discuss a health condition for the first time after seeing a DTC ad.”
· “The FDA survey, for example, found that 89% of
the doctors surveyed believed that DTC advertising made patients more involved
in their health care, and 85% felt their patients were more likely to use their
prescriptions properly because of the ads. In addition, 69% of the doctors felt
the ads encouraged the hard-to-reach patients to come to them, and 78% said
they thought patients sought treatment for potentially serious conditions
because of DTC advertising.”
This says to me … prescription drug advertising is a good
thing…don’t you think?
But I must be missing something. Apparently, it’s okay for
doctors to prescribe and consumers to try a new drug … but not too many. I
welcome Ad Age or anyone else to please explain this to me. Wouldn’t it just be
better for the FDA to fix what’s broken in their house – so we all could make
medical progress with confidence? I certainly think so.
http://noircygnus.com/wwwboard/messages/4169.html clungglisteningkeyboard
Posted by: star | October 20, 2005 at 10:59 PM
http://www.achurch4you.com/wwwboard/messages/13941.html complimentwhosewondered
Posted by: slips | October 02, 2005 at 09:42 AM