Sara Warning
COM 356
Professor Robb
The pharmaceutical industry researches, develops, produces, and markets prescription drugs in the United States. This industry is also the most heavily regulated of all industries when it comes to the advertising. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through its Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications Divisions, regulates all advertising and promotional activities for prescription drugs, including statements made to physicians and pharmacists by pharmaceutical sales representatives. In recent decades, the healthcare system in America has radically transformed from a network run by physicians into a corporate profit machine. From producing misleading prescription drug commercials to forming alliances with doctors, pharmaceutical companies have found ways to reach the public and increase their profits. The argument of the validity of pharmaceutical advertising is an increasing debate. As the amount of drug ads increases as does prescriptions being written. to speculation of its morality and if the ads are to blame why America has become “Medicated America’.
*Firstly the change from marketing to Doctors to marketing to the public was brought on by the system being too slow. Drug companies used to only try to influence doctors, and patients then did what they were told by their doctors. The doctors were the only ones in control of the success of the drug and drug companies were spending large amounts of time and money to gain their attention. In 1986 a new allergy medication called Seldane. The drug wasn’t given a name, all the ad said was “Your doctor now has treatment which won’t make you drowsy, see your doctor” (Speigel). This first DTC televsion ad campaign went from $34 millions in sales a year to $800 million, and pharmaceutical companies noticed (Speigel). The Neilsen Co. estimates that there’s an average 80 drug ads every hour of the day on American television.
The authority of the FDA is based on a...