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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
AMA Wants a Delay in Advertising New Drugs, No
Actors Playing Doctors
Survey says only one-third are interested in drug
advertising
June 15, 2006 – The American Medical Association
yesterday voted at their annual meeting to propose a temporary ban on
all advertising of new drugs by pharmaceutical companies. It is a move
many senior citizens, often confused by the counter claims of drug
advertising, will support. The physicians want the chance to learn about
the drugs before their patients are inundated with advertising about
them. They also want the rule to apply to implantable medical devices.
Interestingly, a new survey released yesterday said only about one-third
of people are interested in drug advertising.
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Under the AMA plan, the Food and Drug
Administration would decide how long to ban the advertising for each
drug or device.
The new direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising policy
also includes guidelines for pharmaceutical companies to follow when
preparing DTC advertising.
"A temporary moratorium on DTC advertising of
prescribed drugs and medical devices will benefit both the patient and
physician," said AMA President-elect Ronald M. Davis, MD.
"Physicians will have the opportunity to become
better educated on the pros and cons of prescription drug uses before
prescribing them, and will be better able to determine when they are
best suited for their patients' medical needs."
In addition to the moratorium on newly approved
drugs (the time interval for this moratorium will be determined by the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)), the AMA adopted additional
guidelines for DTC ads, they:
● should provide objective information about drug
benefits that reflect the true efficacy of the drug, as determined by
clinical trials;
● should show fair balance between the benefits and risks of the
advertised drugs by providing comparable time or space and cognitive
accessibility, and by presenting warnings, precautions and potential
adverse reactions in a clear and understandable way without distraction
of content;
● should clearly indicate that the ad is for a prescription drug and
refer patients to their physician for more information and appropriate
treatment; and
● should be targeted for age-appropriate audiences; and
● should receive pre-approval from the FDA
The AMA also calls for additional research into the
effects of DTC advertising on the patient-physician relationship,
overall health outcomes and health care costs.
"The AMA will work with the pharmaceutical industry
for universal acceptance of the guidelines so that physicians can help
patients obtain appropriate medications," said Dr. Davis.
The AMA also suggested the FDA changes its policy
of not reviewing ads until after they have run, and demand pre-approval.
The physicians are also concerned about actors
portraying doctors in commercials and said that when an actor is
portraying a doctor, the commercial should have a prominent disclaimer.
Only a Third are Interested in Drug Advertising
A survey released yesterday said only one-third of
respondents say they are interested in ads for prescription drugs. Those
with poor health are nearly twice as interested in ads as the very
healthy group (45% vs. 24%). The poor and low-average health groups are
more likely to recall specific products named in the ads (66%) compared
to average recall of 52%. The poor health group is also more likely to
say that ads for prescription drugs are helpful.
The study, conducted by MRxHEALTH in conjunction
with Medical Marketing & Media (MM&M) magazine, also found a vast
majority of consumers (87%) who ask their doctor for a specific drug
will receive it.
The perceived trustworthiness of health information
sources clearly varies between channels with the doctor (4.38)
pharmacist (4.25) and other healthcare professionals (3.96) scoring the
highest on a 1 to 5 scale. Radio (3.06), television (3.19), newspapers
(3.30) and magazines (3.42) ranked lowest. Telephone support lines,
in-person support groups, advocacy organizations, friends and family and
health insurance plans fell in the middle.
But the actions patients take regarding these
different channels doesn't necessarily correlate with the level of
trust. For example, the Internet has a lower trust score (3.67) than
Pharmacists (4.25), yet it drives a greater proportion of people to ask
for a specific drug (34% vs. 27%).
The channels that were found to be most effective
in getting a consumer to ask for a specific drug was the internet (34%),
family or friends (33%) and television (31%). Telephone support lines
(2%), newspaper (3%), in-person support groups (4%), radio (4%) and
books (4%) were the least effective.
The internet was the channel most used by
respondents as their source of information with 81% reporting the use
it. Other entities with significant reach include the doctor (70%)
family or friends (51%), the pharmacist (47%), magazines (38%), books
(36%) and television (30%). All other formats reach less than thirty
percent including: health professionals, insurance plans, newspapers and
national advocacy groups, among others.
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