The question of whether DTCA should be legal has been a heateddebate in many countries. DTCA can be a great tool for informingconsumers and improving lives, and such ads should remain legal inthe United States for several reasons. One reason DTCA should be allowed is that it can informconsumers about diseases they may have and possible treatments forthose diseases. Being that the ads in question are prescriptiondrug ads, DTCA also encourages consumers to seek help from theirdoctors before using the drug. DTCA can educate consumers aboutillnesses they may or may not have realized they were sufferingfrom and so encourage them to seek treatment and improve theirlives. Another benefit of DTCA is that, like any other form ofadvertisement, it gets the word out about a product (in this case,prescription drugs) which can lead to more sales for thepharmaceutical companies that produce them. More sales leads tomore revenue, which can be used to research new and betterlife-improving medications. In effect, the advertising of today cansave lives tomorrow. Perhaps one of the most straightforward reasons why DTCA shouldremain legal is that it should be allowed as protected free speech.Ford and Chrysler can advertise their new cars; why can’tpharmaceutical companies advertise their new legal, FDA-approved,life-improving drugs? The First Amendment should protect DTCA as itdoes almost all other forms of advertisement. | The advertisement of prescription drugs represents a potentialthreat to consumers everywhere. In fact, direct-to-consumer drugadvertisement (DTCA) has been deemed so unsafe that every countrybesides the United States and New Zealand has banned it outright.There are many reasons why DTCA should be banned in the UnitedStates as well. First, DTCA ads can misinform consumers and can lead toconsumers misdiagnosing themselves. A 2013 study published in theJournal of General Internal Medicine found that 55 percentof claims made in DTCA were “potentially misleading,†while 2percent were “false.†DTCA can mislead consumers to request drugsand seek treatment for diseases that the ads lead them to believethey have, which in turn can mean adverse medical results fromtaking unnecessary medications. Second, drugs are often advertised through DTCA before theirPage1046long-term health effects are fully known. Contrary to thebelief of many consumers, drugs can be advertised and sold beforelong-term safety trials have been completed. The drug Vioxx wasmarketed, requested by patients, and prescribed before being takenoff the market after being linked to over 4,500 deaths related tostrokes and heart attacks induced by the drug. Consumers aren’t the only people being negatively affected byDTCA. A large portion of medical doctors have reported havingpatients request advertised drugs that were inappropriate for theirtreatment, and many of these doctors have felt pressured toprescribe the inappropriate drugs. And even if a doctor refuses toprescribe the drug, a 2013 study found that 50 percent of patientswere “disappointed†in their doctors for refusing to prescribe anadvertised drug and 25 percent of patients surveyed would try toconvince the doctor to give them the drug or acquire the drugsomewhere else. Not even wary doctors can prevent consumers fromfalsely medicating themselves as a result of DTCA. |
