References:
1. “AMA Calls for Ban on DTC Ads of Prescription Drugs
Story of Vioxx…
From the late 1990s to early 2000s,
Merck, one of the biggest pharmaceutical
companies, advertised Vioxx for arthritis
and pain relief.2 For Merck, Vioxx was
crucial; During that time, Merck had
patents that were about to expire in 2000
and 2001 on some of its popular drugs, so
Vioxx had to replace the sales and
compete with other companies.2 When
the drug was approved by FDA, Merck
spent about $160 million dollars in
advertising Vioxx directly to consumers. 4
However, the drug was found to cause
serious cardiovascular defects, and In the
U.S., it is estimated 88,000 patients had
heart attacks from taking Vioxx, and
38,000 of them died.8
and Medical Devices.” AMA Calls for Ban on DTC Ads
of Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices | American
Medical Association, 17 Nov. 2015, www.ama-
assn.org/content/ama-calls-ban-direct-consumer-
advertising-prescription-drugs-and-medical-devices.
2. C. Lee Ventola, "Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical
Advertising: Therapeutic or Toxic?,” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov,
Oct. 2011
3. “Despite Warnings, Drug Giant Took Long Path to
Vioxx Recall.” The New York Times, The New York
Times, 14 Nov. 2004,
www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/business/despite-
warnings-drug-giant-took-long-path-to-vioxx-
recall.html.
4. Harvard Health Publishing. “Do Not Get Sold on Drug
Advertising.” Harvard Health,
Ban
Prescription
www.health.harvard.edu/drugs-and-medications/do-
not-get-sold-on-drug-advertising.
5. Law, Michael R. “Costs and Consequences of Direct-
Drug Ads
to-Consumer Advertising for Clopidogrel in Medicaid.”
Archives of Internal Medicine, vol. 169, no. 21, 2009,
p. 1969., doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2009.320.
6. Lazarus, David. “TV Commercials for Prescription
By: Jason Lim, Siddhant Jain,
Drugs 'Doing More Harm than Good'.” Los Angeles
Times, Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2018, Chelsea Shu
www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-
direct-to-consumer-drug-ads-20180410-story.html.
7. Parekh, Natasha, and William H. Shrank. “Dangers and
Opportunities of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising.”
SpringerLink, Springer US, 8 Feb. 2018,
doi.org/10.1007/s11606-018-4342-9.
8. Prakash, Snigdha, and Vikki Valentine. “Timeline: The
Rise and Fall of Vioxx.” NPR, NPR, 10 Nov. 2007,
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
storyId=5470430.
9. Swanson, Ana. “Big Pharmaceutical Companies Are
Spending Far More on Marketing than Research.” The
Washington Post, WP Company, 11 Feb. 2015,
www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/
Promotion of False
Information
 13% of ads, all for diabetes
medications, suggested off-label uses
for weight loss and blood pressure
reduction6:
- Ads are only supposed to
advertise uses approved by the
FDA
- Off-Label ads have not been
approved
 Many of the commercials violate
federal guidelines and, unsurprisingly,
the quality of information presented
is alarmingly low10
- FDA doesn't regulate ads until
AFTER they have been released to
the public4
 It’s impossible to promote all the risks
and benefits with advertising
- Advertising companies are more
likely to hold back important
information on risks through
words such as “consult your
doctor” and “see website for
more information”
 The risks are underemphasized while
the benefits are overemphasized
- Medical issues are too
complicated to be talked about in
60 seconds
- Companies want to mention all
their benefits, so the amount of
time mentioning risks is reduced
d
Economic Disparity
9 out of top 10 pharmaceutical companies
spend more money on marketing than and
development. This drives the prices of drugs
up, which has detrimental effects on our
society and physician-patient relationship.9
Physician-Patient
Relationship
American Medical Association called for
banning direct consumer advertisement in
2015. “Physicians strive to provide the best
possible care to their patients, but increases in
drug prices can impact the ability of physicians
to offer their patients the best drug
treatments,” said Dr.  Harris. “Patient care can
be compromised and delayed when
prescription drugs are unaffordable and
subject to coverage limitations by the patient’s
health plan. In a worst-case scenario, patients
forego necessary treatments when drugs are
too expensive.”1
Increasing Healthcare Costs
 With pharmaceutical companies
spending so much money on drug
advertising, they increase the price
of their drugs to compensate these
expenditures. This negatively affects
the cost of healthcare as programs
would have to compensate more for
the increased price.
- When clopidogrel, a drug that
treats acute coronary syndromes
and prevents atherosclerosis-
related events, began to be
publicly advertised, the company
spent an additional $350 million
on pharmacy expenditures. As a
result, Medicaid reimbursements
increased by $40.58 per 1000
enrollees. Not only so, despite
the significant spending invested
in DTC, the units of clopidogrel
sold did not increase to the
extent of the costs.5
- According to the Department of
Health and Human Services, the
U.S. spent $457 billion on drug
advertising. The resulting rise of
prices were absorbed by
Medicare and Medicaid as they
are the single largest payer for
prescription drugs. This directly
affected federal and state
budgets, insurance premiums,
and patient out-of-pocket costs.7