Should Pharmaceutical Commercials be allowed on TV?

[Oaktree]

We need more regulations on advertising in general,be-it tv,billboards or through mailings. Allowing advertisements for products and causes which regulator approves can steer society in desired directions. Allowing Anheuser-Bush unlimited advertising while restricting competitors being case in point. Do you know anyone that might be interested in regulating what is advertised?

Not sure I'm following you. How is Anheuser-Busch limiting the ablilty of their competitors to advertise?
What sort of additional regulations are you suggesting? ISTR many years ago you could advertise beer & wine, but not hard liquor, though that may have been some sort of gentlemen's agreement with broadcasters.

I do remember the first time I saw an ad for condoms, had to be mid 70s. Ad had nothing to do with the product at all, wouldn't even have known what it was for until they showed the Trojans logo at the end.
Come to think of it, sounds like a typical Apple ad.

 

[TractorTYMe]

Only country in the world where a commercial starts with "Tell your doctor about........" WTF............I would be insulted if knowitall patients started to tell me what to prescribe. I'd tell them to go to webmd to diagnose their own stuff.

 

[Jchonline]

Same question then...

Im not interested in other industries in this context. Drugs that are so dangerous they require a prescription should not be advertisements on TV. The whole purpose of requiring a prescription is because it requires the expertise of a doctor to decide if it will be safe and effective in a specific patient. Advertising provides no benefit to the consumer in this case, it only helps the drug companies. You must not understand how the medical community works. We dont need advertising to know when a new drug comes out. They are approved by the FDA and we know about them well in advance of hitting the market.

 

[NoTrespassing]

Im not interested in other industries in this context. Drugs that are so dangerous they require a prescription should not be advertisements on TV. The whole purpose of requiring a prescription is because it requires the expertise of a doctor to decide if it will be safe and effective in a specific patient. Advertising provides no benefit to the consumer in this case, it only helps the drug companies. You must not understand how the medical community works. We dont need advertising to know when a new drug comes out. They are approved by the FDA and we know about them well in advance of hitting the market.

I'm not defending advertising drugs on TV. I work for a company that manufacturers biomedical instrumentation. Some of our biggest customers are drug companies and we're in the process of having an instrument approved by the FDA. It was a simple question and I just wanted your opinion.

You're right, I don't know how doctors get drug information. I assumed through medical journals, colleagues, and drug representatives.

 

[LouNY]

Im not interested in other industries in this context. Drugs that are so dangerous they require a prescription should not be advertisements on TV. The whole purpose of requiring a prescription is because it requires the expertise of a doctor to decide if it will be safe and effective in a specific patient. Advertising provides no benefit to the consumer in this case, it only helps the drug companies. You must not understand how the medical community works. We dont need advertising to know when a new drug comes out. They are approved by the FDA and we know about them well in advance of hitting the market.

Drug companies advertise there prescription drugs so that consumers will prefer a known brand when their doctor is talking to them.
Many prescription drugs are not "dangerous" and a great many are safer then aspirin. Which would never be approved as an over the counter medicine today.
My last 13 years of employment was spent in the calibration field for a Bio-pharmaceutical firm, you want to talk about circle jerk FDA approvals are a major one.
It can take so long for an approval that much of the equipment used in the production of the trial batches are obsolete when the drug is approved and just trying to upgrade to newer controllers or transmitters is a complete nightmare.

 

[BravoXray]

Come to think of it, sounds like a typical Apple ad.

Yep, someone's gonna get the shaft.

 

[oosik]

I mute ALL commercials. Some are actually humorous in the muted format.

 

[Jchonline]

Drug companies advertise there prescription drugs so that consumers will prefer a known brand when their doctor is talking to them.
Many prescription drugs are not "dangerous" and a great many are safer then aspirin. Which would never be approved as an over the counter medicine today.
My last 13 years of employment was spent in the calibration field for a Bio-pharmaceutical firm, you want to talk about circle jerk FDA approvals are a major one.
It can take so long for an approval that much of the equipment used in the production of the trial batches are obsolete when the drug is approved and just trying to upgrade to newer controllers or transmitters is a complete nightmare.

I use the term dangerous as that is in most pharmacy law texts. You are correct that many are safe, but they still require a prescription. However there are certainly Prescription drugs that are truly dangerous as well.

There are very few multi sourced product advertisements on the market today. Drug companies got smart a decade ago. They focus on 2 areas now. The first is drugs for rare diseases. The second is what we call “me-too” drugs, which are bio similar drugs that another company already manufactuers (Very cheap to bring to market). I have not seen many biosimilar ads on TV.

I also agree the FDA red tape is ridiculous.

 

[Jchonline]

I'm not defending advertising drugs on TV. I work for a company that manufacturers biomedical instrumentation. Some of our biggest customers are drug companies and we're in the process of having an instrument approved by the FDA. It was a simple question and I just wanted your opinion.

You're right, I don't know how doctors get drug information. I assumed through medical journals, colleagues, and drug representatives.

You may be retired before that approval comes through!

 

[NoTrespassing]

You may be retired before that approval comes through!

You're absolutely correct and I hope I am actually. The process is ridiculous. Luckily we've made a lot of money selling the same technology as a research tool.