NYT: A.M.A. to Study Effect of Marketing Drugs to Consumers

[DeepModem Mom]

A.M.A. to Study Effect of Marketing Drugs to Consumers
By STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: June 22, 2005


....The American Medical Association, the nation's largest organization of physicians, agreed yesterday to study whether consumer drug advertising leads to unnecessary prescriptions, potentially harming patients and driving up health costs.

The A.M.A.'s decision, during a meeting in Chicago, came after a debate over consumer drug advertising. The association's House of Delegates had considered half a dozen proposals to limit drug advertising.

Many critics say advertising fueled the widespread use of cox-2 painkillers, recently linked to serious cardiovascular problems. Vioxx, the cox-2 drug that Merck withdrew from the market in September, was widely advertised to consumers. Studies later indicated that, for many patients, it was no more effective than other, safer pain killers.

Several psychiatrists' groups with representatives at the A.M.A. meeting raised the idea of a ban on advertising of new drugs for at least a few months after they go on sale.

Imposing a window of time between a new drug's release and its first advertising to consumers would allow doctors to evaluate medications before patients asked for them. If a drug caused serious side effects, doctors might spot them before the drugs were widely used....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/business/media/22adco.html

[ernstbass]

1. I'm sick of medication ads on tv

They also need to look at how aggressively these new meds (and old meds) are marketed to physicians and other health professionals. If the industry would eliminate their marketing budgets (or reduce them) and pass the savings on to the consumer in the form of lower prices, we could all afford meds we need.