Reviewing Direct-To-Consumer Drug Ads Should Top FDA Head McClellan’s Agenda, Editorial Says

Recently confirmed FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan should examine the agency's "slowdown in actions against drug advertisements that provide false, misleading or inadequate information," according to a Boston Globe editorial. With direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads "proliferating," the "danger is that without a close watch on ads, consumers might be inadequately informed" about a drug's side effects or receive a "distorted impression that a new, more expensive drug is markedly more effective or safer than an older and cheaper" one, the editorial continues. As prescription drug costs continue to rise, the "last thing the country needs is more consumers clamoring for high-cost drugs that are not all that much better than others," according to the Globe. The editorial concludes, "McClellan's first prescription for the FDA should be to strengthen its appetite for drug ad enforcement," and if the agency finds it "cannot regulate ads aggressively, Congress should step in to set it straight" (Boston Globe, 11/12).