16 Letter News Visn

16 Letter News Visn

16 Letter News Visn

Posted on: December 07, 2011 - 11:17 pm
by Admin

Congressional pressure has forced several pharmaceutical giants to delay consumer advertising of new prescription drugs for six months while they evaluate their use and educate doctors on the promises and potential side effects of the new products.

The agreement continued a series of advertising setbacks for the drug industry, which may also impact the television industry. The setbacks mean consumers may not see as many of those "ask your doctor" commercials which have flooded the channels since the companies won approval in 1997 to advertise directly to viewers.

Nielsen Monitor-Plus reported that drug companies spent $5.4 billion on TV commercials in 2007. It is not known how much that volume will be impacted by the six-month agreement..

Pharmaceuticals Agree to Ad Delay

In June 2008, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Schering-Plough and Pfizer wrote letters to the House Energy and Commerce Committee agreeing to the six-month moratorium on advertising new drugs. According to AdAge, the companies also agreed to limit the use of doctors in their commercials and not to use actors to portray doctors.

Committee Chairman John Dingell and Representative Bart Stupak, both Michigan Democrats, had asked the companies to delay new drug advertising for two years.

The Congressmen said they "appreciated the companies' willingness to change some of their business practices," but Stupak added the firms had not agreed to other requests that would "protect consumers from misleading and deceptive advertising."