Tag Archives: healthcare

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Drug Pushers on TV: Time to Stop

Pharmaceutical companies sometimes seem to be the only advertisers on television. Should they be?

The U.S. and New Zealand are the only countries that allow direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements, according to USC’s Center for Health Policy and Economics. The result? Drug utilization is” highly responsive” to advertising exposure and “…those who initiate treatment due to advertising are on average less adherent, which suggests that some of the increase in utilization might be unnecessary.”

Direct to consumer prescription drug advertising also exposes prospective users to often ignored risks. 

In a current television commercial for Abbvie’s Rinvoq, prescribed to treat arthritis in adults, a woman enjoys a trek through a rock canyon and a man teaches children how to tap dance. 

It all sounds so simple. Take this and you’ll get better.

But the truth is the drug has a lot of potential hazards, including:

  • Increased risk for developing serious infections that may lead to hospitalization or death. Reported infections include active tuberculosis (TB), invasive fungal infections, bacterial, viral, including herpes zoster, and other infections.
  • Lymphoma and other malignancies.
  • A higher rate of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) (defined as cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke).
  • Thrombosis, including deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, and arterial thrombosis, with many of these adverse effects serious and some resulted in death.
  • Gastorintestinal (GI) perforations. 

In another case, Bristol Myers Squibb’s newest commercial for its heart disease drug, Camzyos, has a message of hope for Mike.

In a 90 second ad, Mike, a man living with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, enjoys a hike through a pleasant landscape.

“There were some days I was so short of breath I thought I’d have to settle for never stepping foot on this trail again,” Mike says in a voice-over. But now he takes Camzyos and his symptoms have improved.

But Camzyos has a lot of risks, too. Side effects may include:

  • Heart failure that can lead to death, with increased hazards when Camzyos is taken with certain other medications or grapefruit juice. 
  • New or worsening shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue, swelling in your legs, or a racing sensation in your heart. 
  • Harm to your unborn baby if you are you pregnant or breastfeeding or you plan to become pregnant or breastfeed.
  • A reduction in how well hormonal birth control works.
  • Dizziness and fainting.

And if you take too much Camzyos, you need to call your healthcare provider or go to the nearest hospital emergency room right away.

The message of both commercials? Adam Lenkowsky, executive vice president, chief commercialization officer and head of U.S. oncology at Bristol Meyers Squibb said at a Jan. 4, 2024, investor event that the point of the commercials it’s to “bring patients into treatment”. 

In other words, the companies aren’t really pitching their drugs directly to consumers. Instead, they want prospective patients to badger doctors to prescribe it.

Such appeals must drive doctors crazy. After all, if the promoted drug was a realistic treatment option, a doctor would likely have already thought of it. The commercials are an attempt to get in the middle of the patient-doctor relationship in a way that favors the drug company. 

The FDA requires that drug advertisements “…must present a fair balance of drug benefits and risks, with the most important risks provided in an audio (i.e., spoken) format.”  But counterintuitively, “… in giving a laundry list of side effects associated with any given prescription drug…consumers may actually be more likely to believe that the drug is effective in treating the condition for which it is designed,” argues Cohen, Placitella & Roth, a Pennsylvania and New Jersey law firm that handles pharmaceutical litigation. 

In 2015, the American Medical Association called for a ban of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for prescription drugs. Nevertheless, spending by the pharmaceutical industry on television advertisements has continued to accelerate, with national health care costs largely driven by drug spending.

It’s time to renew, and act on, AMA’s call.

UPDATE: Oct. 7, 2025: Trump’s Crackdown on Drug Ads Could Sting TV Networks

The pharmaceutical industry shelled out nearly $11 billion in 2024 for U.S. ads, and is on track to top that this year. 

The Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that it plans to close a decades-old loophole in Food and Drug Administration guidance that permits abbreviated descriptions of drug side effects in broadcast ads, as long as companies provide more information elsewhere, like online. That 1997 guidance is credited with fueling the boom in TV drug ads.  The administration move targets drug manufacturers’ TV ads and paid social-media ads from telehealth firms. In a letter to companies dated Tuesday, the FDA said social media has made it “increasingly difficult for patients to distinguish between evidence-based information and promotional material.” The pharmaceutical industry is among the heaviest advertising spenders in the U.S. When it comes to commercial spots during in-demand shows, they are even more prevalent. Pharmaceutical ads are the third-biggest category for linear TV and streaming ad spending in the U.S., according to estimates from MediaRadar.  Brian Wieser, an industry analyst, estimated that pharmaceutical ads account for 20% of all TV news advertising. The potential impact “will not go unnoticed,” he said. 

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Almost half of all American births are now paid for by Medicaid

With government playing an ever-larger role in healthcare, there’s almost an even chance that the government paid for your baby.

It’s reminiscent of an ad President Obama’s campaign released in 2012 featuring “The Life of Julia” which promoted a narrative of government taking care of people from cradle to grave.

As the national debate on Obamacare reform takes place, new research by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that, on average, Medicaid, , paid for just over 47 percent of all births in the United States in 2015, with many of those babies born to unmarried mothers. That same year, half or more of all the babies born in 24 states had their births paid for by Medicaid.

Medicaid provides healthcare coverage to low-income families and individuals. Exactly what it covers during pregnancy, for labor and delivery and after a baby’s birth varies by state. Emergency Medicaid, which covers labor and delivery only, is also available to legal immigrants in the country for less than five years, and undocumented immigrants experiencing a medical crisis.

The share of births covered by Medicaid reached 50 percent in Oregon, up from 34.4 percent in 2001. New Mexico earned the honor of being the state with the largest share of births covered by Medicaid, 72 percent. New Hampshire came in at the lowest level, 27 percent.

medicaidbirthsmap

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

Of the 3,977,745 babies born in the United States in 2015, 1,600,208 of them—or 40.2 percent–were born to unmarried mothers, according to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That made 2015 the eighth straight year that 40 percent or more of the babies born in the United States were born to unmarried mothers, according to CDC data.

Single mothers are more likely to be poor than married couples. The poverty rate for single-mother families in 2015 was 36.5%, nearly five times more than the rate (7.5%) for the families of married-couple families.

According to the  the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a non-profit group that monitors federal spending, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid already swallow 58% of tax revenue, and are predicted to consume 80% by mid-century. Obviously, this trajectory can not continue.