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PhRMA: New DTC Study Has Little Relevance to Today

A study published in the Annals of Family Medicine criticized direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, and advertisers’ lobbying groups are calling it out-of-date and misconceived.

The study said that seven of the 38 ads captured in the study were so-called reminder ads, in which the name of the drug is touted but no other information is given, but critics point out that reminder ads are now the subject of voluntary bans among major drug marketers, writes Brandweek. The study also claimed that only 26 percent of drug ads on TV made claims about risk factors of the drugs being advertised.
The study is based on sampling of old advertisements broadcast in 2004, “long before PhRMA’s Guiding Principles went into affect,” points out PhRMA representative Ken Johnson in a statement. The study, then, does not reflect any of the changes made in DTC advertisements over the past 12 months and therefore has little relevance to the current policy discussion over DTC advertising, he says.

“FDA officials and others have indicated in public statements that advertisements are more educational and that companies are submitting the ads to the FDA for prior review in accordance with the principles,” he says. “That is true progress.”