Congress keeps heat on DTC advertising

Anne Zieger — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:30:20 -0400

Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is coming under more heavy fire from Congress, despite efforts by drugmakers to hold off regulation of one of their favorite marketing channels. This week, lawyers from drug industry association PhRMA met with the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigations panel to see if they could soften the hardline positions taken by committee members. Energy & Commerce members apparently weren't satisfied by May testimony from pharma marketing execs, despite the execs' vows that they'd avoid misleading DTC ads in the future. What the Committee wants, apparently, is written promises from pharma CEOs that they'll play nice with DTC ads.

Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI) has been particularly tough. He told the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog that if PhRMA doesn't get its act together, the Committee would probably hold another public hearing--something the industry wants badly to avoid--if the industry doesn't establish a timeframe for making changes in their DTC practices. What really scares pharma leaders is the prospect that the next step following a hearing will be legislation restricting DTC advertising practices. They're also facing Congressional pressure to agree to a two-year moratorium on all DTC advertising, something they'd definitely prefer to avoid.

To learn more about this issue:
- read this Wall Street Journal blog item

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Drugmakers agree to six-month DTC delay

Anne Zieger — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:18:05 -0400

Under fire over direct-to-consumer ads, which some Congressional legislators contend are misleading to consumers, pharmaceutical companies have agreed to voluntarily wait six months after drugs are approved before advertising to the public. The Congressmen pressuring the drug companies--Bart Stupak (D-MI) and John Dingell (D-MI)--aren't pleased, however, given that what they wanted was a two year DTC moratorium. Besides, even the drug companies themselves admit that they generally don't advertise within the first six months after product introductions anyway, given that they usually spend at least that much time educating doctors about drugs before beginning consumer advertising. Meanwhile, the pharmas turned down other requests, including that they only advertise products when studies have shown that they improve clinical outcomes (rather than having used biomarkers). (Looks like they gave up a whole lot of nothing, in other words.) The promise to delay on DTC advertising came as part of a hearing focused on ads for Pfizer's Lipitor, Johnson & Johnson's Procrit, and Merck/Schering-Plough's cholesterol drug Vytorin.

To learn more about the hearing:
- read this Wall Street Journal blog item

Related Articles:
Who will pay for DTC pharma ad oversight?
Drugmakers face direct-to-consumer ad ban
AMA to study the impact of drug advertising