Do prescription drug ads help or hurt consumers seeking relief?

To the American Medical Association, the Zoloft egg is one example of a bigger problem they say is having a negative impact on American health care. Calling for a ban of direct-to-consumer drug advertising in November, the AMA accused the ads of driving the demand for often unnecessary, expensive medication.Do prescription drug ads help or hurt consumers seeking relief?




By Chandra Johnson
Deseret News Service


Posted Apr. 20, 2016 at 12:15 PM 



Conversationally, doctors refer to it as the Zoloft "sad egg," the small, weirdly cute animated egg cowering under a rain cloud in its cartoonish struggle to regulate its sadness in one of the most iconic prescription drug ads of the early 2000s.

For pharmaceutical companies, doctors and millions of American prescription patients, it was the face that launched a thousand ads — the beginning of a $4.8 billion advertising business that has since expanded to about 80 direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription ads an hour, according to Nielsen.

To the American Medical Association, the Zoloft egg is one example of a bigger problem they say is having a negative impact on American health care. Calling for a ban of direct-to-consumer drug advertising in November, the AMA accused the ads of driving the demand for often unnecessary, expensive medication.

"Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate," AMA board chairwoman-elect Patrice A. Harris said in the AMA's announcement.

But to Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the ads serve a valuable public service in raising awareness about undertreated conditions and new treatment options.

"Providing FDA-regulated, scientifically accurate information to patients so that they are better informed about their health care and treatment options is the goal of direct-to-consumer advertising about prescription medicines," PhRMA senior communications director Holly Campbell said in an email. "DTC advertising encourages patients to visit their health care providers' offices for important conversations about health that might otherwise not take place."

While the call for a ban alone is unlikely to inspire a change to ad guidelines, it could inspire legislation to further restrict what pharmaceutical ads can and cannot include (the Food and Drug Administration declined to comment on ad regulation because of the potential for such legislation). Some doctors don't think that would be a bad thing.

"DTC ads are effective in that they increase patient/doctor conversations and prescriptions and, probably, the number of patients in genuine need of prescription therapy to get medications," said Dr. Richard Kravitz, University of California Davis professor of internal medicine. "But it also increases the number of unnecessary and harmful prescriptions for patients."

Others question what an ad ban would mean for Americans who could theoretically go their entire lives with a condition that's easily treated because they simply aren't aware of treatment options.

"It's really difficult to make a statement about all drug ads because you have the coexistence of under-treatment with some conditions, where advertising could help and overtreatment that can hurt," University of Pittsburgh public health researcher Julie Donohue said. "It's difficult for regulators to set up rules of the game that will address the lack of awareness without exacerbating the overuse problem."