England, France, Australia, Italy---these countries have placed bans on marketing prescription drugs directly to consumers.
In fact, only two developed countries haven’t banned direct-to-consumer advertising---New Zealand and the United States (Canada allows highly regulated direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising).
While pharmaceutical companies have been advertising prolifically for decades, 1997 brought on the current onslaught of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) by dramatically reducing the amount of restrictions on pharmaceutical advertising. All said, the current regulatory climate benefits the American Big Pharma behemoth, and as a result, that behemoth spends billions of revenue dollars on advertising.
People Can’t Afford Pharmaceuticals, and Prices Continue to Rise
Martin Shkreli brought attention to the pharmaceutical industry recently with his bully-like price exploitation, but the practice …show more content…
Unfortunately, California’s initiative won’t be good enough.
The Bottom Line: Reuters Reveals the Cost of Pharmaceutical Advertising
Pharmaceutical companies claim they can’t cope with lower drug prices because price-slashing would impede the research and develop new cures and treatments. Nobody in his right mind would want to stop medical research, of course, so should we just “suck it up” and pay high prices? Not if we realize what exactly we are paying for.
Reuters cites an AMA statistic showing that pharmaceutical companies have upped their advertising spending by 30% in the last two years, bringing the total advertising expenditure to $4.5 billion. Here is another statistic: in 2014, Johnson & Johnson earned close to $31 billion in sales. They spent about $7 billion in research and
In fact, only two developed countries haven’t banned direct-to-consumer advertising---New Zealand and the United States (Canada allows highly regulated direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising).
While pharmaceutical companies have been advertising prolifically for decades, 1997 brought on the current onslaught of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) by dramatically reducing the amount of restrictions on pharmaceutical advertising. All said, the current regulatory climate benefits the American Big Pharma behemoth, and as a result, that behemoth spends billions of revenue dollars on advertising.
People Can’t Afford Pharmaceuticals, and Prices Continue to Rise
Martin Shkreli brought attention to the pharmaceutical industry recently with his bully-like price exploitation, but the practice …show more content…
Unfortunately, California’s initiative won’t be good enough.
The Bottom Line: Reuters Reveals the Cost of Pharmaceutical Advertising
Pharmaceutical companies claim they can’t cope with lower drug prices because price-slashing would impede the research and develop new cures and treatments. Nobody in his right mind would want to stop medical research, of course, so should we just “suck it up” and pay high prices? Not if we realize what exactly we are paying for.
Reuters cites an AMA statistic showing that pharmaceutical companies have upped their advertising spending by 30% in the last two years, bringing the total advertising expenditure to $4.5 billion. Here is another statistic: in 2014, Johnson & Johnson earned close to $31 billion in sales. They spent about $7 billion in research and