Eliminate tv ads for Rx medicines

The American Medical Association is calling for a ban on direct-to-consumer advertisements for prescription drugs and medical devices.

This is a move I whole-heartedly support -- both as a consumer fed up with sitting through endless tv ads for Cialis -- and as a physician who knows the effect this practice has on medical costs.

These advertising costs, which are figured into the price of medicines drug companies charge, have increased to $4.5 billion in the past two years.   One estimate a few years ago, even prior to this increase, reported that the industry spends more on advertising than it does on research for new medicines.   And yet they justify high prices because of their research, never mentioning the cost of advertising.

In addition to the advertising costs, they engender other costs.   Consider the extra time it takes a doctor to have to explain to his patient why the latest ad he saw on TV last night is not appropriate for his illness, or that the new drug may be good but it is no better than the old one which costs one-tenth as much.   And then there is the added cost of the new drugs that are unnecessarily prescribed by some doctors rather than take the time to explain why he does not -- or because he knows the patient will likely just go to another doctor who will prescribe what the tv ads push.

The medical profession should never have acquiesced to changing the old prohibition against advertising, just as the profession should never have turned its management over to business professionals.   Because now that's what we've got -- another big business that puts profits ahead of compassion and sensible health care.

Ralph