The latest from DTC Perspectives

The Inequality of DTC Regulation

By government regulation prescription drug advertising is under much greater scrutiny than other health advertising. While that is the way it is, one has to question the logic. A consumer, who is barraged by all types of health product ads, is somehow less protected from claims made by OTC’s, supplements, weight loss products, exercise equipment, and physicians and hospitals.

A hospital can claim it has brilliant doctors who can cure your cancer. A weight loss supplement can claim it reduces deadly belly fat. An exercise device can claim rock hard abs in minutes of daily exercise. Somehow Congress in their infinite wisdom treats prescription drugs as something worthy of super regulation while letting numerous other medical products skate free of providing proof of efficacy and free of risk disclosure.

Most disturbing is the freedom doctors and hospitals have to boast great success and expertise in their ads without any substantiation. Not regulated, they can use anecdotal stories at will showing patients boasting of cancer cures. They need not clutter their ad with any statistics on success rates or risks of staying at their institution. A recent (12/18) New York Times Article by Natasha Singer profiled the problems with hospital advertising and the lack of regulation.

Consumers need and deserve consistency in how medical ads are regulated. If we can have once in a hundred year health care reform we should be able to figure out how to put health care products and services on a fair footing in terms of benefit and risk disclosure. Prescription drugs are serious medications and should be regulated heavily in ad claims. I would argue that choosing a hospital or treatment center is also deadly serious and deserves the same level of claims review. Many supplements are downright dangerous taken incorrectly but escape serious scrutiny from regulators. If our goal in America is to provide better quality care at lower cost, then all health care advertising needs to be regulated whether it is a product or service.

Congress, as part of a final health reform bill should give FDA or another part of the federal government jurisdiction over health claim advertising. Americans are wasting precious health care dollars on products that do not work as advertised and potentially dangerous. Prescription drug advertising, although widely criticized, is at least scrutinized by FDA for accurate information. There are powerful lobbies designed to keep many health products free to make unsubstantiated claims. A Congress that claims to want to protect the "little" guy needs to act to equalize claims requirements.