Photo by Raimond Klavins
Many Americans do not remember life before direct-to-consumer (DTC) “ask your doctor” drug ads selling expensive, sometimes dangerous drugs for diseases many had not heard of until the ads.
The ads need to go according to US senators and some recent legislation they have introduced.
The End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act sponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Angus King (I-Maine) in June would ban DTC ads in broadcast and print and even in social media.
“It is time for us to end th[e] international embarrassment,” says Sen. Sanders. “The American people don’t want to see misleading and deceptive prescription drug ads on television. They want us to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and ban these bogus ads.”
27 Years of Asking The Doctor
Beginning in the US in 1998 and only allowed in one other country (New Zealand), drugmakers spent almost $13.8 billion on DTC drug advertising in 2024, making back five times that amount.
DTC advertising began with “small molecules” (pills) but now features high-priced injected biologics like Enbrel, Dupixent and Skyrizi (“large molecules”) many derived from “immortalized GMO Chinese hamster ovary cell lines” cheaply made in the lab and some enjoying orphan drug tax and marketing advantages and incentives.
The ads have turned patients into drug reps––”I need this pill for this condition, Doc”––”captured” news outlets who won’t bite the hand that feeds them by reporting bad prescription drug news and even polluted water ways with metabolites in the urine of millions of prescription drug takers.
Thanks to DTC ads, we “suffer” from seasonal allergies, asthma, seasonal affective disorder, social anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, erectile dysfunction, irritable bowel syndrome, dry eye, fibromyalgia, insomnia, migraines, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, spectrum disorders, chronic fatigue, restless legs, excessive daytime sleepiness, osteopenia, perimenopause, and lactose intolerance.
We are all sick or potentially sick or sick without knowing it and need Big Pharma.
The victim/hypochondria that DTC ads cause has an effect beyond enriching drugmakers and their stock holders: it neutralizes political activism and indignation because the problem is you and your health problems not the political/economic/social system. Take your meds!
A DTC Poster Child Drug on the Radio
Ad buyers, increasingly AI, profile listenerships for age, income and politics but DTC ads cross all demographics. Ka-ching.
For example, DTC ads for the eye drug Izervay which treats “GA,” (geographic atrophy) run concurrently on Chicago’s conservative radio station, WLS (formerly hosting Rush Limbaugh) and Chicago’s mainstream news radio station WBBM. They even run on the sports station WSCR (“The Score”) during Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball games.
“GA” is a condition that can result from dry age-related macular degeneration. It vaulted into public awareness by the former Happy Days star Henry Winkler. “Slow it down,” tease Izervay ads that run constantly with a musical lick culled from the 1975 R & B hit by the music group War, Low Rider.
Will The End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act Pass?
If the commercial airwaves lost their ubiquitous DTC ads like Izervay, drugmakers and news outlets would take a direct hit. Drugmakers, especially biopharma companies, have such deep pockets that many lawmakers are bought which will be revealed when we see who opposes the bill.
DTC ads raise health care costs, sack Medicare and other entitlement program budgets and create throngs of patients “suffering” from diseases they never even knew existed before drug and awareness advertising. It is said that 80 percent of US adults now take a prescription drug.
DTC drug adversing perverts the health care system, rewarding “sickness” and while ignoring real need. HopefullyThe End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act will pass.
