70% of drugs advertised on TV are less effective than others on the market

[thewayne]

They are described as being of "low therapeutic value", i.e., less effective. So basically the drug companies are trying to sucker you into brow-beating your doctor into prescribing stuff that you saw on TV - which is going to be non-generic and much more expensive - and it is likely to be less effective than other drugs on the market.

Yeah.

So what we've got here is the pharma industry KNOWING that the drug isn't very effective, but they figure that if they put a lot of money into advertising on TV and in magazines that they can shift enough units to work towards recovering costs before the doctors find out it's less effective and start saying "No, I will not prescribe that. Here are more effective alternatives for that condition."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/most-prescription-drugs-advertised-on-tv-are-of-low-benefit-study-finds/

https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/01/18/2122237/70-of-drugs-advertised-on-tv-are-of-low-therapeutic-value-study-finds

EDIT: I forgot to mention that there are only two countries IN THE WORLD that allow such advertising of drugs: the USA and New Zealand! How the Kiwis were suckered into doing this, I do not know. But as chained to corporate profits as we are, I don't think this will ever change. For me, this is one of the reasons why the mute button on the remote was invented: if I can't skip the commercial, at least I can silence it.

Comments

[bibliofile]

Y'know, there were reasons that drug companies weren't allowed to advertise their products for a long time.

Tangentially related: advertising overall increased after it was allowed as a deductible business expense during the Reagan era.

And here we are.

[kaishin108]

I am shocked the Kiwis put up with it. It is a horrid practice.
We are so lobbied high and low by these pharmaceutical companies, grr.

[acelightning73]

A lot of the drugs ads I see give a frightening list of adverse effects. But somehow these ads send people running to get a prescription for the latest wonder drug to treat some difficult condition. "I saw it on TV - it must be good!"

[disneydream06]

I miss the days when there weren't drugs advertised on tv. :(
Hugs, Jon

[warriorsavant]

Not permitted in Canada (or most countries), but some spill over, usually broadcast, or print media, or people visiting US. I tend to automatically refuse to prescribe it on principal; interesting study about their being less effective (but not surprising).

In addition to my reflex refusal, much of it wouldn't be paid for by either government or private insurance plans here anyhow. Example, biological agents for psoriasis, although quite effective, are also quite expensive, and no one is going to pay for those for mild psoriasis. In fact, won't pay for more severe psoriasis unless you've shown (a) how severe it is, and (b) that older, cheaper agents failed. At one point, you could then get the agency that the company hired to do the paperwork, but in the past year, Quebec medicare (if they pay for it) have stopped allowing that to happen. I (which is to say my nurse, T, as my agent) has to fill in an on-line request.

[howsmyenglish]

Back when I lived in Germany, there definitely was advertising of drugs on TV. But not prescription drugs, I don't think there were any prescription drugs, only general stuff against pain and fever and a drug company used to advertise itself, too.

[mtbc]

It's amazing how uncaring one must be to peddle expensive mediocrity to the ill.

Still, the ads in the US are kind of fun: one gets to guess what ailment the product will be for. E.g., people in fields tend to have allergies, middle-aged tennis players tend to have arthritis, etc. Just like with other kinds of ad where, e.g., women on horseback tend to be menstruating (or, if a bit older, incontinent).

[silveradept]

They're also advertising to the doctors to prescribe the stuff with things that would probably be called bribery, but for the fact that we're in the Capitalist Hellscape. I'm not surprised, however, that the mediocre stuff gets direct-marketed to try and recoup the costs that go into making these particular failures.