Page 355 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Pharmaceut cal Advert s ng

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Christopher A. Vaughan

PharMaCeutiCal adVertising

In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed phar-
maceutical companies to advertise prescription medications directly to con-
sumers. That decision led to a precipitous rise in drug advertising and a
corresponding rise in demand for advertised medications. Indeed, as demand
for advertised pharmaceuticals has increased, the prices for these brand-name
medications have also climbed. Supporters of direct-to-consumer advertising
(DTCA) suggest that pharmaceutical advertising improves patient education,
promotes active participation in personal health, and also helps to destigmatize
certain medical conditions. Critics, however, warn that DTCA represents an in-
trusion into the realm of personal health by commercial interests, drives up the
cost of prescription medications, and threatens the economic sustainability of
the American health care system.
Media critics have long expressed concern at advertising’s penchant for sell-
ing junk food, cars whose exhaust pollutes the air, cigarettes, alcohol, and other
unhealthy or dangerous products. But what happens when advertising sells
medicine and drugs? Beyond the prevalent, multimillion-dollar business in ad-
vertising directly to doctors, direct-to-consumer advertising through television,
magazines, and other media has wedded the media, advertising, and health care
in new and highly contentious ways. Balancing the pros and cons of DTCA re-
garding medicines and drugs forces one to consider whether the simultaneous
capitalist and social motivations behind DTCA exist in a state of natural and
inevitable conflict.