The ANA Responds to Stuart Elliott's "Misdiagnosis"

The ban or restriction Mr Elliott suggested would severely hurt consumers and is highly likely to be unconstitutionalamp160 Study after study has shown that millions of Americans are unaware that they have high blood pressure the silent killer high cholesterol clinical depression diabetes or numerous other lifethreatening or debilitating diseasesamp160 Many of these Americans are unaware that there are prescription drug therapies that can prevent mitigate or cure these dangersMillions of Americans also do not go frequently to their doctorsamp160 Therefore prescription drug advertising can play a key role in providing valuable information to the publicamp160amp160In addition prescription drug advertising is heavily regulated by the Food and Drug Administration FDA The ads must be submitted to the FDA 45 days in advance of broadcast and in virtually all instances the manufacturers work with the FDA to meet any objections about content that might be viewed as misleading or even untruthful amp160In 2007 Congress passed important drug safety and approval legislation which gave the FDA the power to impose major civil penalties for any ads that cross the lineMr Elliott cites the American Medical Associationamp8217s AMA recent call for a ban on DTC ads because amp8220A growing proliferation of ads is driving demand for expensive treatments despite the clinical effectiveness of less costly alternativesamp8221 amp160In a somewhat ironic twist he quotes the incoming chair of the AMA as charging that DTC advertising amp8220also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs even when these drugs may not be appropriateamp8221This claim of course ignores the fact that all medicines and medical devices must be prescribed by a licensed physician In other words we are asked to believe that doctors with all of their clinical experience and who are highly trained and educated are not sufficiently equipped or are unwilling to prescribe for a patient the best treatment for a particular conditionamp160 This is certainly not a problem that can justify censorship or banning of truthful highly regulated advertising of these potentially lifesaving or lifeenhancing productsBanning or imposing onerous restrictions on DTC advertising raises very serious First Amendment concerns amp160In the Western States case in 2003 a case which involved pharmaceutical advertising the US Supreme Court unequivocally held that amp8220If the First Amendment means anything it means regulating speech must be a last not a first resortamp8221 amp160Clearly the proposals to ban or restrict DTC advertising completely fail that testMr Elliott and other critics of DTC advertising should carefully evaluate the potentially adverse consequences of bans on this speechamp160 To cite just one example a survey of physicians from more than a decade ago indicated that out of a million men who asked their doctors for a drug to combat erectile dysfunction many did not receive this treatment because more than one hundred thousand of them were instead diagnosed with dangerous hypertension and half that number with heart disease amp160A significant number of these men who were unaware of their condition were subsequently diagnosed with diabetesDTC advertising under the FDAamp8217s strict oversight is providing extremely valuable information to millions of Americansamp160 Banning these ads would be a serious misdiagnosis and a prescription that would be extremely unwise and counterproductive to promoting the publicamp8217s healthImage at top courtesy of Corbis The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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The ANA Responds to Stuart Elliott's "Misdiagnosis"

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The ANA Responds to Stuart Elliott's "Misdiagnosis"

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