IPI Publication Press Release
IPI Ideas
Related Publication Title:
Do as I Say, Not as I Do: Big Corporations’ Quest to Limit Drug Advertising
Released by Misty Woodruff on 06/26/2002
IPI Ideas
Related Publication Title:
Do as I Say, Not as I Do: Big Corporations’ Quest to Limit Drug Advertising
Released by Misty Woodruff on 06/26/2002
Full Text
Press Release (06/26/2002)
Full Text PDF
“If Wal-Mart Can Advertise and Still Provide Low Prices,
Why Can’t Drug Companies?”
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 26 2002 For more information contact: Misty Woodruff at 972-874-5139
Dallas, TX -- Wal-Mart spent half a billion dollars advertising in 2001 and claims that it provides consumers with the lowest price — always. In fact, thousands of companies and industries spend lots of money on advertising.
So why then are some companies trying to keep drug companies from advertising too?
“GM, Wal-Mart and Kodak, along with some other companies, are trying to limit the drug industry’s right to inform consumers,” points out IPI Visiting Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews in a recent publication for the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI). “This is a restriction those companies would never tolerate were their own advertising being challenged.”
But neither companies or consumers have to fear pharmaceutical advertising because drug advertising drives costs down, not up.
One complaint against drug advertising has been that when patients or doctors choose advertised brand names over generics, their choices may increase total health care spending. While that may be true, it cannot be ignored that the brand name may be higher in quality, have fewer side effects, or be a different composition.
Such benefits save lives.
Drug advertising is also ethical. There is little need to fear doctors prescribing medicines their patients do not need. In fact, a recent Prevention magazine survey found that about half of those who talked to a doctor as a result of a direct-to-consumer (DTC) ad received no drug therapy.
“The goal in health care should be to ensure that people get the appropriate amount of care. If an expansion of DTC advertising means that we are treating more people who otherwise might have suffered, then increased medical spending is positive,” said Matthews.
The solution definitely isn’t to restrict patients’ access to information. It’s to return more control of health care dollars to consumers.
If employers such as GM, Wal-Mart and others are tired of paying the price for prescription drugs, then return control to patients and let the competition begin.
--30--
