Drug ads and prescriptions drugs. How is this allowed? Only doctors can prescribe these drugs in the first place, so why are these ads directed to the general public, instead of the doctors?
If your doctor thought you needed it, they would prescribe it. I know what they are trying to do and I think it is wrong. They are trying to have the patients put pressure on their doctor to take their drugs.
They say "ask your doctor" , of course, they are the only ones who can prescribe medications! Talk about someone "getting in between you and your doctor". These are medical decisions and not a proper subject for general advertising.
Let me hear it from you doctors out there.
Eric
Commenting on blogs isn't supposed to be about cheering on the blogger... but in this case I'm going to have to do just that.
ReplyDeleteI think it's crazy that these TV ads are allowed. I'm likely younger than many of the readers of this blog, but I can remember a time when this kind of advertising didn't exist. I wish we could go back there, but it seems there's just too much ad revenue flowing to reverse the trend.
I'd also like to get some feedback from doctors on this, but from what I've heard the advertising feeds into the defensive medicine feedback loop creating higher costs throughout the system by accelerating spending on prescription drugs of questionable efficacy.
One interesting solution could be to allow TV advertising, but create a rule whereby any drugs marketed in that fashion were automatically disqualified from health insurance reimbursement - or at least CMS(medicare). As with much of the stuff that goes on in our medical system there'd be less extraneous work done if patients had to bear the actual cost. This would force the pharma companies to make strategic decisions in how they bring their drugs to market, effectively creating two classes of products (e.g., nice to have drugs and need to have drugs). Since any effective medication that a patient needs at a given point in time would still be prescribed by their doctor and covered by their health plan (e.g, need to have drugs) the pharma companies wouldn't have to pay to advertise those. For nice to have drugs they'd have to come up with really good reasons that patients should both ask their doctor - and pay for those products themselves... just like every other business in any other industry!
Enough on that for now. Interested in your feedback.
Colin
Of course, everything you say is
ReplyDeletecorrect and it makes no common sense to advertise to the masses in hopes
they will ask their doctor for blood pressure or cholesterol medication.
Except for the sexual potency meds. which many males in their 50's and
beyond might mention to their docs if they feel threatened by loss of
consortium.
The pharmaceutical industry works within the guidelines and wouldn't spend
money if the ads didn't pay off, so I guess they're worth it. The ethical
aspect is another matter altogether.
Doc Mattson ( send via email)