Buy my drug! It is better for you
The economic principle I’m exploring is= People generally respond to incentives in a predictable way
My research question to help me study the economic principle is= How do direct-to-consumer advertising affect consumers? How can pharmaceutical companies ads better inform Americans?
The article is published in Prescription Drug Abuse titled “Prescription Drugs Should be Better Regulated” demonstrates this economic principle because it argues that pharmaceutical companies need to have better regulations on drug advertising and help Americans make more informed choices.
First, direct-to-consumer advertising has worsen relationships between physicians and patients. Fewer than 10% of physicians believe that DTCA is an effect trend in health care. Instead of physicians informing their patients, they have to convince them why the expensive new drug is not better than the drugs that physicians have. Physicians now feel more pressured to comply with the patient’s request even when they know that the drug is no better. “In a recent survey conducted by Consumer Reports, one-fifth of the respondents said they had asked their doctor to prescribe a drug they saw advertised on television or elsewhere: Some 70% of physicians complied with this request”. Direct-to-consumer advertising doesn’t help physicians communicate with patients about what drug is truly best for them.
Second, In order to stop manipulative marketing, The FDA is suppose to regulate companies from making false and misleading claims, but FDA are not enforcing this rule because the funding of the FDA is half of what pharmaceutical companies are spending on direct-to-consumer advertising. The FDA is not regulating these companies as much as they should be, because of the lack of resources. The president of PhRMA president and CEO Billy Tauzin said that new regulations are being put in place. “In 2005, PhRMA president and CEO Billy Tauzin announced that the industry group had adopted "Guiding Principles" that would promote patient education in DTC drug marketing and "foster responsible communications between patients and health care professionals to help patients achieve better health." Yet pharmaceutical companies are not promoting drugs over healthy behavior, but rather what gains drug sales and profits.
Lastly, this article argues that drug advertising should be more educational rather than using consumer’s emotions to sell. Advertising for cars consumers see images of a man or women and see the long-winding roads and hear calming music. They are being advertised their dream car and luxury. A consumer knows to research about comparing prices before trading in their own car. Yet by contrast, when a consumer sees an ad about Lipitor (a drug to treat high cholesterol) they hear “risk of heart attack by 36%” and “treats high cholesterol”. For 45 seconds an attractive person talking about the drug’s benefits and the last 15 seconds talking about the potential risks. While viewing this ad the consumer believes the FDA and the agency approved this ad. There is a level of trust and authority for these ads rather than car ads. But Lipitor lacks the educational value to their consumers. According to an article titled "Do Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good?" John Carey of BusinessWeek says that Lipitor's benefits to people without significant heart disease are far less clear when the numbers are expressed this way: “‘For every 100 people in the trial, which lasted 3 1/3 years, three people on placebos and two people on Lipitor had heart attacks. The difference credited to the drug? One fewer heart attack per 100 people. So to spare one person a heart attack, 100 people had to take Lipitor for more than three years. The other 99 got no measurable benefit."’ Drug advertising lacks providing consumers with clear information on how effective the drug really is in real situations. By doing this it misleads consumers in thinking this new drug will do wonders.
In my next blog post I will research: Although drug advertising is viewed more negative? What are the benefits of it and how does it positively affect consumers?
I found this post to be very informative and interesting, especially the part about the FDA.
ReplyDeleteI was really interested by this post. I agree that drug advertising should be used to inform people instead of using their emotions to sell a product.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to learn how drug companies are more interested in profit rather than the safety and health of their potential customers. This is a current topic regarding the Opioid epidemic as more people were being prescribed the high-addictive drug even though they didn't need it. I would like to know why hasn't there been more funding towards the FDA to prevent further misleading drug advertisements.
ReplyDelete