Why are pharmaceutical drugs allowed to be advertised on TV?
March 1st, 2010 | by admin |
Up until the 90’s, they weren’t allowed to advertise on TV and we were much better off for it. I have no idea what justification was used to convince the government to reverse that. It probably has something to do with the majority of senators and reps "owing" pharma companies for campaign contributions.
EDIT: Turns out the FDA lifted the ban in 1997, so congress wasn’t to blame (for once). Check the link below. One fun fact revealed is that in many commercials not all the side effects of the drug being advertised are mentioned because TV ads are too short to list all of them and still have time left to describe the product.
Apparently, the drug companies conned the FDA into lifting the ban by claiming that the commercials would be "educational". HA HA HA HA!
Now that the FDA has let the cat out of the bag, anytime the subject of stopping or limiting the ads makes the drug companies start whining about "freedom of speech".
Yea, it’s all about greed. For every $1 spent on ads they make about $4.20 in revenues. Nice. There’s absolutely no reason why this crap should be on TV. If you need a drug, you go to a doctor. He gives you a prescription. The whole system is based on the idea that you’re not qualified to diagnose yourself if you’re not a doctor, so the ads are totally illogical.
3 Responses to “Why are pharmaceutical drugs allowed to be advertised on TV?”
By DiesixDie on Mar 1, 2010 | Reply
Up until the 90’s, they weren’t allowed to advertise on TV and we were much better off for it. I have no idea what justification was used to convince the government to reverse that. It probably has something to do with the majority of senators and reps "owing" pharma companies for campaign contributions.
EDIT: Turns out the FDA lifted the ban in 1997, so congress wasn’t to blame (for once). Check the link below. One fun fact revealed is that in many commercials not all the side effects of the drug being advertised are mentioned because TV ads are too short to list all of them and still have time left to describe the product.
Apparently, the drug companies conned the FDA into lifting the ban by claiming that the commercials would be "educational". HA HA HA HA!
Now that the FDA has let the cat out of the bag, anytime the subject of stopping or limiting the ads makes the drug companies start whining about "freedom of speech".
Yea, it’s all about greed. For every $1 spent on ads they make about $4.20 in revenues. Nice. There’s absolutely no reason why this crap should be on TV. If you need a drug, you go to a doctor. He gives you a prescription. The whole system is based on the idea that you’re not qualified to diagnose yourself if you’re not a doctor, so the ads are totally illogical.
References :
http://www.netwellness.org/healthtopics/wellness/dtc.cfm
By stargazer76 on Mar 1, 2010 | Reply
So people will ask their doctors for them and the drug reps/ companies will make money $$$.
References :
By caltex on Mar 1, 2010 | Reply
Like someone said, it’ all about money, for pharmaceutical companies.
References :