Drug Companies and Profit

Are the costs of advertising being passed on to us? Obviously, yes! Simple math, the drug ads are advertising, it costs them money so in fact they raise the price of the prescription drugs. We would all most likely agree that the cost of prescription drugs should be lowered not raised. So why again are the drug companies advertising? To inform us, educate us and promote their drugs. So is the FDA controlling the amount of money spent on prescription drug ads? In researching, the answer is simply no. The FDA can not control how much drug companies spend on advertising. Also, the FDA has no control in participating in the ad making. So what is this telling us, the consumers? The drug companies are out to make more money from advertising, not to educate us or advise on what we think we might need.

The entire ad is required to mention:
-At least one approved use for the drug
-The generic name of the drug
-Under certain circumstances, ads can give only the most important risks
-For more detail, see brief summary/adequate provision (requires research from consumers)

Yet the ads fail to mention very important information about the drug:
-Cost
-If there is a generic version of the drug (same ingredients just cheaper)
-If there is a similar drug with fewer or different risks that can treat the condition
-How the drug works (its "mechanism of action")
-How many people who take the drug will be helped by it
and many more things the ads fail to mention

Advertising: Adequate Provision

An alternative way to release all of the risk information and details about the medication; is through an adequate provision which is a law from the FDA. The law requires for the ads to include only the most important risk information if the ads. Also, advertising for the consumers on how to get the full FDA-approved prescribing information, which has all the drug's risks. Realistically thinking, are we that prone to go educate ourselves? I would think so; I would like to say yes, we are talking about our health. Whether a consumer is actually going to do research on a prescription drug is debatable and unsure. Seems that we only hear what we want to hear and then run to into the doctor's office and tell the doctor what we feel we need. The consumer may say, according to the ad, I have the "exact" same symptoms and I need this certain prescription. The advertisement can mistakenly lead the consumer to believe that they are now "educated" in the medicine that they need. That in turn can persuade the doctor into prescribing something that is either too strong or not what they exactly need, in fear of loosing a patient. It is said that knowledge can be dangerous, "the more we know the more we ask". By no means am I persuading ignorance, but it seems that if we are not willing to educate ourselves in our medical condition and symptoms, and our willing to base our total decisions or recommendations based on an advertisement then we should just allow the experts to their jobs. Looking after the consumer’s benefits is one of the primary reasons why the FDA was created in the first place. Even with that comment and idea, it seems kind of controversial. Doctor’s refrain from prescribing it to just any patient; yet their private practice goes down the drain because he failed to listen to his patients?

Consumers & Prescription Drugs

No matter what channel or what you're watching, you are bound to get hit with a commercial dealing with prescription drugs. Makes you wonder why prescription drugs are being advertised to us; why now. Going into the whole research process about my topic, I was pretty much adamant about the whole concept of why prescription drugs were being advertised to consumers. I thought it was simply, wrong. I wasn't a doctor to know what "I" needed. I felt it was manipulating in sales tactics and it was a way to make more money; maybe misleading and false hopes to people that what they were dealing with was curable or treatable.

Since the very beginning, one of the main reason as to why the FDA was created was to protect consumers from drugs considered to be unsafe. So why now does the FDA seem it's important to issue a direct-to-consumer sale? Since 1999/2000 the retail sales of most popular drug have increased 12%. In 2007, the pharmaceutical industry spent $4.8 billion dollars a year in advertising. So why all of a sudden in the past recent years is the pharmaceutical industry making it such effort to "educate" the consumers and spend so much money on advertising? As I research more I can't help to find my perspective on the fence.