USA Today Examines Direct-To-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising
USA Today on Tuesday examined direct-to-consumer advertisements and reaction to them by some in the health care industry. Drug companies' advertising to consumers grew from an $800 million expense in 1996 to $2.7 billion in 2001, according to a 2003 report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University. For every dollar spent on DTC advertising, pharmaceutical companies have $4.20 in sales, the report says. A study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Ernst Berndt in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 40% of doctors think the advertisements affect their patients and practices positively, 30% see a negative effect and 30% see no effect. Mary Frank, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said DTC ads often inform people about conditions they never knew were treatable or were reluctant to discuss. Frank noted a National Medical Association survey of African-American doctors that "found an increase in diagnoses because the ads brought patients into the doctor's office." But she added that the ads "certainly are aggravating" to doctors because they "have to explain to a patient why a drug might be OK, but not something [patients] need. Then you get into an adversarial situation." Russell Roberts, a professor of economics at George Mason University, said DTC advertising can be problematic because "[f]or so many people, the out-of-pocket cost for drugs is a fraction of the true cost, so [they say], 'hey ... bring it on.'" Patients often request the newest prescription drug, which is heavily advertised, even "when an older nonprescription treatment works as well and is cheaper," USA Today reports (Manning, USA Today, 2/15).
U.S. Residents Should Take Ownership of Health, Opinion Piece States
"As President Bush pushes an 'ownership society,'" Americans should "first take a good look at 'owning' our health," contributor Laura Vanderkam writes in a USA Today opinion piece. Vanderkam writes that "we're not as powerless over drug consumption as we think." Although U.S. residents are "grateful the [pharmaceutical] industry produces drugs that shrink tumors and keep AIDS patients alive," we shouldn't "pretend cancer and AIDS drugs are the reasons we're coughing up so much cash at the pharmacy," she continues. The "biggest demand-booster is that we don't take care of ourselves," she writes (Vanderkam, USA Today, 2/15).
