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How Obama Will Affect DTC Advertising

President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic control of both houses could spell a tightening of restrictions on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.

Obama has specifically proposed regulating direct-to-consumer advertising, though his proposals have been vague, writes MediaPost. Possible future outcomes might include restrictions on advertising for certain kinds of drugs, moratoriums on advertising new drugs, more stringent FDA review of new ads, and limiting the nature of claims by pharma advertisers, industry watchers believe.

A congressional push to institute such regulations took place in 2007, but lobbyists for the pharma industry derailed the move. Democrats may be more willing and able to push regulations through this time.

Possible increased scrutiny by the FDA may actually benefit print, direct and point-of-care - areas where adding additional information is inexpensive - according to Bob Ehrlich, chairman of DTC Perspectives. Television ads, on the other hand, would be more difficult to execute.

In spite of the potential for greater regulation, several polls showed that pharma marketers backed Obama, perhaps because Sen. John McCain has a history of criticizing the pharmaceutical industry. According to FiercePharma, the industry donated to both parties nearly equally, for the first time in almost 20 years.

AdAge points out that the biggest worry of ad groups is regulators would attempt to limit DTC advertising’s deductibility as a business expense, because of the practice’s unpopularity. That, they warn, could set a precedent for other unpopular ad categories.