Seniors Targeted by New Consumers Union Education
Campaign on Prescription Drugs
Attorneys General provide grant of $4.4 million to
Consumer Reports publisher
April 28, 2008 Last week Attorneys General from
around the country announced a $4.4 million grant to Consumers Union
that will fund a public education program designed to eliminate huge
gaps in public knowledge about prescription drugs. Senior citizens, due
to their massive consumption of prescription drugs, will be a primary
target of the effort.
With more than $10 billion dollars spent on drug
advertising each year, the airwaves are saturated with drug promotions
that often provide incomplete and inadequate information about drug
choices.
Todays grant announcement gives Consumers Union,
the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, the assistance to expand
its current public education campaign to reach new audiences with free
and unbiased prescription drug information.
Millions of consumers either go without needed
medications or pay high prices for their prescriptions because they
dont know about effective, affordable alternatives, said Jim Guest,
President of Consumers Union.
The AG Grant will help counter pervasive drug
industry marketing that drives up health care costs by informing
consumers about their choices when it comes to prescription
medications.
The grant money is available as part of a $38
million dollar consumer protection settlement between the Attorneys
General of 50 states and Warner-Lambert, now owned by Pfizer.
In 2004, Warner-Lambert agreed to pay $430 million
to resolve allegations that it illegally marketed its drug, Neurontin,
for off-label purposes not approved by the Food and Drug
Administration.
Consumers Union is deeply honored to be selected
by the AG Committee to educate consumers about their drug choices, said
Gail Shearer, Director of Health Policy Analysis for Consumers Union.
According to Shearer, the grant will enable CU to
leverage the success of its Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs
campaign, which aims to level the prescription drug playing field for
consumers by comparing drugs based on effectiveness, safety, and price.
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs (www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org)
has so far examined prescription drugs used to treat 35 major medical
illnesses and conditions, including high cholesterol, high blood
pressure, depression, insomnia, and diabetes.
The AG grant means that we can reach populations
where the need is greatest, with the ultimate goal of improving overall
health outcomes and value through better drug choices, added Shearer.
Target populations include people with large
out-of-pocket drug expenditures, such as seniors and the uninsured;
people who use multiple drugs; and low-income minorities. CU will use
several avenues to disseminate this information, available for free
online at
www.ConsumerReportsHealth.org. For example, the National
Association of Agencies for the Aging, though its 650 Area Agencies,
will bring CUs unbiased information to senior communities across the
country.
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs combines a review
of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness and safety of medicines
with pricing information. Every report is peer-reviewed by medical
experts. The project is independently administered by Consumers Union
and Consumer Reports with support from the Engelberg Foundation, a
private philanthropy, and the National Library of Medicine.
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