Prescription Medicine and Advertising

Ganluan

After seeing the 1000th commercial for Advair, I got to thinking.

Should pharmaceutical companies be allowed to advertise on TV, in magazines, or at all? It seems like a medical professional should be the one recommending medicine to me, not a commercial.

How many times will a person see an ad for a cholesterol-reducing drug and ask their doctor for it, even though a much cheaper generic variant could accomplish similar results? This is of course assuming that doctors will prescribe what they believe is the best medicine for the situation.

What do you think?

THEPAIN73

I have always said that advertising medicine is the dumbest excuse.

The money they spend to advertise it could be used to, oh I dunno, make it cheaper to the consumers who actually need it?

Doctors are also paid to promote certain medicines.

KalTorak

I dunno how many people see an ad for a pill and then go and ask their doctor about it; I'd guess not that many.

Like a lot of advertising, it's more about name recognition. Heck, a lot of the time the ads don't even tell you what it's supposed to be treating. But they put the name and logo out so when your doctor says something like "Well, there are X treatments or Y generic drugs you could go on, or we could start you on Lipitor" your brain goes "Hey, I've heard of Lipitor!"

Tach

We've had this discussion before. I hate ads for prescription medications. It's an incredibly small market to sell to, yet they have a HUGE share of ad time, almost the same as car commercials (which I equally loathe due to their frequency).

A pox to those who lifted that ban. A pox I say!

enlightenedbum

Tach wrote: »

We've had this discussion before. I hate ads for prescription medications. It's an incredibly small market to sell to, yet they have a HUGE share of ad time, almost the same as car commercials (which I equally loathe due to their frequency).

A pox to those who lifted that ban. A pox I say!

Also it's some absurd amount of Pharma expenditures which is driving the price of prescription meds through the roof.

Tach

I know, right? Plus- who the hell thought that of using an old couple in matching bathtubs in the middle of nowhere as a euphemisim for sex? I'd like to kick that guy in the nuts.

Barcardi

So about a week ago i went to the emergency room for (ow) kidney stones. They drugged me up and treated me great. Everything besides the pain was 100% A+ work, nurses and lab techs were awesome. Then the doctor came in and gave me his list of prescribed medicines. Among them was flomax, which treats the prostate. He told me that "certain studies show" that flomax helps pass kidney stones. I pressed him on it and he relented, saying its not necessary and that i wouldn't really need to take it because i don't have an enlarged prostate and i'm not 50, both of which could actually contribute to issues passing a kidney stone... and i didn't want to take a piss drug for life when the problem would be solved in 2 days... It is as if he just read that advertisement off a sheet before looking up and realizing i was not 50.

Its like... 10 seconds in this fuckhead ER doctor tried to shill me on a drug with a name. Thank god it was late in his shift and he admitted his BS straight up. I cannot believe people like that get paid.

Flomax, the commercial where guys have "going problem."

edit: now im fine

edit edit: now lets picture the cost of marketing and selling Viagra vs the costs associated with sending malaria medicine to Africa.

Qingu

It is positively surreal to see a commercial where 70% of the spoken text is a list of gross side-effects, all set to visuals of smiling women frolicking in a sunlit field.

I can't wait to see what anthropologists 100 years in the future are going to say about this shit.

Orochi_Rockman

I dont think they should be advertised either. Although I do enjoy the ones that are all happy and up beat about the things the drug will do for you and then the last 15 seconds of the commercial is someone listing all the horrible side effects as fast and quietly as they can.

TK-42-1

All these do is turn doctors into drug dealers. Also more than half the expenditures by pharma companies go into adverts. if they took that and put it towards research maybe they could fucking cure something, but that wouldnt be profitable either. Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

Feral

I don't mind disease awareness campaigns. "Prostate cancer affects X million Americans every year. Ask your doctor about it."

I'm not a terribly big fan of direct-to-consumer advertising.

urahonky

It's not just advertising. I know the drug reps come in and visit my old doctor almost daily and treat him to lunch and whatever. I know this clouds his judgment because he prescribed Advair (the drug rep's drug) even though I told him I've been on it before and it almost never works for me. Even after saying that he still prescribed it and he ended up giving me another asthma medication that I took in ADDITION to Advair to help my asthma.

Feral

TK-42-1 wrote: »

Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

I don't really agree with this trope. Any pharma company that found a cure for a major disease would be able to make a mint. They're not holding out on cures out of some misguided profit motive.

TK-42-1

that was just more raging than anything. its hard to even talk about this without my bloodpressure rising. but im sure i could just ask for something to help that.

Ganluan

I think the commercial for Ambien was the most amusing.

It will help you sleep! Side effects: Chance of waking up and doing things you will not remember later (it actually said this), increase in anger, and narcolepsy.

Sounds awesome!

DarkPrimus

KalTorak wrote: »

I dunno how many people see an ad for a pill and then go and ask their doctor about it; I'd guess not that many.

Like a lot of advertising, it's more about name recognition. Heck, a lot of the time the ads don't even tell you what it's supposed to be treating. But they put the name and logo out so when your doctor says something like "Well, there are X treatments or Y generic drugs you could go on, or we could start you on Lipitor" your brain goes "Hey, I've heard of Lipitor!"

But in this day and age of self-diagnosing and inflated sense of entitlement, people go into the doctor's office with a clear idea of what their problem is and what they need already. All they want is a signed scrip to get them the pills.

THEPAIN73

Ganluan wrote: »

I think the commercial for Ambien was the most amusing.

It will help you sleep! Side effects: Chance of waking up and doing things you will not remember later (it actually said this), increase in anger, and narcolepsy.

Sounds awesome!

Hahaha, so demonic possession then?

geckahn

Ganluan wrote: »

I think the commercial for Ambien was the most amusing.

It will help you sleep! Side effects: Chance of waking up and doing things you will not remember later (it actually said this), increase in anger, and narcolepsy.

Sounds awesome!

And if you snort it, you totally trip balls. Visuals all over the place, although you do act like a retard.

MrMonroe

TK-42-1 wrote: »

All these do is turn doctors into drug dealers. Also more than half the expenditures by pharma companies go into adverts. if they took that and put it towards research maybe they could fucking cure something, but that wouldnt be profitable either. Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

I'm not sure about half, but it is more than R&D

edit: whoops

TK-42-1

MrMonroe wrote: »

TK-42-1 wrote: »

All these do is turn doctors into drug dealers. Also more than half the expenditures by pharma companies go into adverts. if they took that and put it towards research maybe they could fucking cure something, but that wouldnt be profitable either. Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

I'm not sure about half, but it is more than R&D

edit: whoops

I heard that on NPR the other day, so it's probably skewed. Either that or they were saying it was more than R&D and im remembering wrong.

I'm still waiting for the side effect "May be mildly fatal."

Feral

TK-42-1 wrote: »

MrMonroe wrote: »

TK-42-1 wrote: »

All these do is turn doctors into drug dealers. Also more than half the expenditures by pharma companies go into adverts. if they took that and put it towards research maybe they could fucking cure something, but that wouldnt be profitable either. Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

I'm not sure about half, but it is more than R&D

edit: whoops

I heard that on NPR the other day, so it's probably skewed. Either that or they were saying it was more than R&D and im remembering wrong.

I'm still waiting for the side effect "May be mildly fatal."

I'll point out here that "promotion" includes a hell of a lot more stuff than just direct-to-consumer advertising.

I'm not excusing the pharma industry, though.

Barcardi

Feral wrote: »

TK-42-1 wrote: »

Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

I don't really agree with this trope. Any pharma company that found a cure for a major disease would be able to make a mint. They're not holding out on cures out of some misguided profit motive.

Or alternatively, the current research fiasco with that anti hpv virus vaccine and treating men with it to double the profit. I forget who makes it, but they really are trying to mandate making that thing a mandatory vaccine for men. This strikes me as marketing research not actual research. That sort of thing makes me cynical for other types of research and cannot be good for the scientific community. Especially now that it seems like every 5 years we find out that a major brand drug just up and kills a lot of people.

Terrendos

This kind of bugs me, but it is free enterprise and I'm wary of setting political precedent for what can and cannot be advertised. Besides, there's a thousand problems in this world, and for me this ranks somewhere around #853.

emnmnme

TK-42-1 wrote: »

All these do is turn doctors into drug dealers. Also more than half the expenditures by pharma companies go into adverts. if they took that and put it towards research maybe they could fucking cure something, but that wouldnt be profitable either. Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

Man, those Yaz commercials sure are compelling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-gsezOlZfg&feature=related

But I bet if I bugged my doctor for a week, I could get a prescription for Yaz even though I am a manly man with a hair chest.

*goes out back to chop firewood*

Barcardi

emnmnme wrote: »

TK-42-1 wrote: »

All these do is turn doctors into drug dealers. Also more than half the expenditures by pharma companies go into adverts. if they took that and put it towards research maybe they could fucking cure something, but that wouldnt be profitable either. Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

Man, those Yaz commercials sure are compelling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6nbaEBYR2k

But I bet if I bugged my doctor for a week, I could get a prescription for Yaz even though I am a manly man with a hair chest.

*goes out back to chop firewood*

Doesnt Yaz now have a class action lawsuit against it?

japan

For what it's worth, prescription drugs can't be advertised in the UK (except directly to doctors).

Lately there have been a few ads of the public information type "Talk to your doctor about erectile dysfunction (sponsored by Lilly)", which I think are starting to push the boundaries somewhat.

emnmnme

japan wrote: »

For what it's worth, prescription drugs can't be advertised in the UK (except directly to doctors).

Lately there have been a few ads of the public information type "Talk to your doctor about erectile dysfunction (sponsored by Lilly)", which I think are starting to push the boundaries somewhat.

I read somewhere that prescription drugs are only advertised on TV in the States and New Zealand.

CommunistCow

I was under the impression that there used to be a law or FCC regulation saying prescription drugs couldn't be advertised on TV. We just need to reinstate that law. If I am mistaken and it never existed we just need to write one.

I can't remember seeing any drug commercials back in the 90s.

Kistra

emnmnme wrote: »

japan wrote: »

For what it's worth, prescription drugs can't be advertised in the UK (except directly to doctors).

Lately there have been a few ads of the public information type "Talk to your doctor about erectile dysfunction (sponsored by Lilly)", which I think are starting to push the boundaries somewhat.

I read somewhere that prescription drugs are only advertised on TV in the States and New Zealand.

And it is relatively recent that DTC advertising was unregulated in the US.

I hate it.

WonderMink

Barcardi wrote: »

Feral wrote: »

TK-42-1 wrote: »

Why cure them when you can just treat the symptoms and make them come back for more.

I don't really agree with this trope. Any pharma company that found a cure for a major disease would be able to make a mint. They're not holding out on cures out of some misguided profit motive.

Or alternatively, the current research fiasco with that anti hpv virus vaccine and treating men with it to double the profit. I forget who makes it, but they really are trying to mandate making that thing a mandatory vaccine for men. This strikes me as marketing research not actual research. That sort of thing makes me cynical for other types of research and cannot be good for the scientific community. Especially now that it seems like every 5 years we find out that a major brand drug just up and kills a lot of people.

I don't understand what you have issue with. Men carry HPV just like women do. While they may not get cervical cancer they could certainly give it to a woman who would. If you want to get rid of the disease, that would be the way to do it.

In fact, it might be more societally expedient to give it to just men. Or to give it to both. Gets rid of the whole "slut shaming" issue.