Are medical advertisements benefiting the public? Or are they causing the prices of medicine to be much higher here in the United States then they should be and never mind the ethics side of the picture.
The American Medical Association (AMA) in November of 2015 voted to ban Television advertisements. Per an article from the Washington Post, ““Today’s vote in support of an advertising ban reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially-driven promotions, and the role that marketing costs play in fueling escalating drug prices,” AMA board chair-elect Patrice A. Harris said in a statement Tuesday. “Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate.””
If the AMA thought back in 2015 that ads on television should be banned and with the now extremely high volume of ads both in print and on television the cost to consumer is something that we should really think about. Per the website Prescriptiondrugs.procon.org, “For every $1 spent on DTC ads, sales of prescription drugs rose by $4.20. In 2012, the pharmaceutical industry spent $3.1 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising. On average, drug development for a single drug costs at least $4 billion and as much as $11 billion.” The only benefit to advertising to the public is that more drugs are sold, but you have to realize that it costs a lot of money to advertise and guess who pays for that. That’s right it you the consumer and you the drug user are also the loser because you are being pushed to use drugs that may have little to no beneficial affect on your body.
Also on Prescriptiondrugs.procon.org the article gives a very good list of the pros and cons on advertising of drugs by the pharmaceutical companies. If you are interested in reading more about this subject I highly recommend the above link.
I wrote this particular blog because I am getting fed up with the television ads telling people what they should be taking. Since when are lay people experts on drugs? I thought doctors were the ones that have the expertise and experience to prescribe the correct medicine to make you better, not you the patient.
Our consumer based economy is driving big pharma to push its products without thought on how it is causing more problems than solutions. So in my opinion it is high time to ban advertising of medicine.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
