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Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

arstechnica.com

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Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#251

Post by pavel_lishin »

johncolanduoni wrote: post #179
Turbo_hedgehog wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you allow basically the same ad but disallow mention of any brand names - only the generic name or condition to be treated?

Then we have a tragedy of the commons, where Pfizer and Lilly (the makers of Viagra and Cialis respectively) will wait for the other to create generic ED ads that they will both benefit from.

I'm not sure that's the tragedy of the commons.

Also, I imagine that the cost of making and running the commercial would be pretty trivial compared to the profits to be made from the sale of the product.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#253

Post by orangecat »

johnward wrote: post #144
Archio wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sure that could bite me in the ass if something were to happen to me, but I'm comfortable with that risk Has it ever occurred to you don't have much control over that risk, and that you are a human being that like every other can become sick for no reason at all? > and have family to help me out Has it ever occurred to you that many people in the United States do not have family to help them out?

That's ok because the emergency room has to treat you if you don't have insurance but don't mention single payer or those same people will flip out. Even though those costs are being passed on to the insured int he current setup.

Uncompensated care in the US for 2013 was $85 billion (http://kff.org/uninsured/report/uncompensated-care-for-the-u...). Which may seem like a lot, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the total health care spending of $3.8 trillion (http://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/02/02/annual-u-s-h...). The alleged problem of people deliberately not buying health insurance and then freeloading when they get sent to the emergency room just isn't a significant factor. But the ACA cleverly uses that as a pretense to force young and healthy people to pay far more than the fair market value for insurance policies, as a way to disguise subsidies to others.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#254

Post by TeMPOraL »

a3n wrote: post #184
phren0logy wrote: post #32

I'm a doctor, and I think this is a good idea. The information provided to both doctors and patients by drug companies is marketing material. The best source of information is peer-reviewed publications, and even those are subject to some bias. Still, that's the best source we have, and should be the primary way all of us get health care information. If you, as a patient, do not understand what the reasearch articles…

That's a great approach. However ... when I was unemployed, I was very happy that my doctor had free samples from her rep of $DRUG_THAT_KEEPS_ME_ALIVE. Our pediatrician also had free samples for some of the things our kid needed.

This is one of the more insidious techniques used by pharma companies. See [0], search for "free sample".

[0] - http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/02/17/pharma-virumque/

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#256

Post by chillwaves »

jessriedel wrote: post #167
jerf wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars are already heavily regulated. The minimum-legal car may not be comfortable and may not be pretty, but it'll be pretty darned safe and be decently efficient (considering the amount of material it is hauling around to be that safe). You can't advertise a death trap because it's already illegal to sell one. It's a poor comparison to the medical world where you can not help but do dangerous things to solve even mor…

You are vastly more likely to die in a car crash than from a non-abused prescription drug. Furthermore, small cars are significantly more deadly than large ones and trucks. Car companies obscure this by comparing cars to ones "in their class", thereby misleading the consumer into thinking that their high-scoring small car is about as safe as it gets. (I am putting aside opiate abuse, since illegal use is a different…

Not if all the cars are smaller cars.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#257

Post by TeMPOraL »

crusso wrote: post #234
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> information about medicines TV ads are not "information about medicines", that's just ridiculous. They are mind-games the advertisers play with potential customers in hope of squeezing more cash out of them. You want true information? Read peer-review studies. > Under the current model a doctor could say "You should take " and I would have little to no exposure to alternatives Right, 'cause doctors are evil like th…

You could say similar things about political ads. They're mind-games. Do we want to get rid of them too?

ABSOLUTELY YES.

That we, as a society, allow people deceive us and to lie in our faces, and not only that - we've turned it into an respected occupation - still boggles my mind.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#258

Post by chillwaves »

c3534l wrote: post #229
arawde wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who also has mental health issues, I want to say I agree. However, I don't think ads are the optimal way for a populace to stay educated. Personally, every medication I've been prescribed has been followed by my own research as to how the medication is designed to work. I will agree though that the relationship between me and my doctor should be a two-way one. I am completely open with my doctor and make i…

It's not the best solution, but I don't think banning them will do any good. I'm more rebutting the attitude in this thread that medical information is only for your doctor and not you. I don't think you'll get better health outcomes by focusing all of your medical advertising budget on influencing doctors behind the backs of patients. And advertising does serve a legitimate purpose; I knew a woman with restless leg…

We should just ban profit seeking in health care. It removes the incentive to cheat.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#259

Post by TeMPOraL »

aquadrop wrote: post #98

Great news, so pharma companies could focus more on drugs itself and less on marketing. It's huge money waste with mysterious intention - if your drug is the best, doctors should use it anyway, and if it's bad but you can increase its usage with huge marketing campaign, then mankind just gets screwed for own money.

> if your drug is the best, doctors should use it anyway, and if it's bad but you can increase its usage with huge marketing campaign, then mankind just gets screwed for own money.

That's 100% true for everything - just replace "drug" with "product". As soon as an advertisement is leaving the point of informing about product's existence and features, it's starting to trick people into chosing a suboptimal option.

Re: Doctors want ban on prescription drug, device advertisements

#260

Post by peteretep »

stephenhess wrote: post #248
joshuaheard wrote: post #10

I've never understood the logic behind prescription drug ads. The first rule of sales is to pitch the decision maker. You can't buy prescription drugs without a doctor's authorization, so basically the ads are asking people to go beg their doctors for medicine they may, or may not, need. The doctor, in turn, may give in to the patient's emotional pleas, since they are, in effect, in a customer service business. This…

One aspect that I haven't seen mentioned here is that these ads are also designed to improve patient adherence. So you have 30 million prescriptions of zoloft prescribed in the US every year (crazy right?) but there's a lot of money left on the table when folks don't refill. The ads are reminders to these people to go get that refill and get back on their meds. For people with asthma, diabetes and hypertension, non-a…

I think this needs hard evidence to back up - is adherence much worse in the UK where ads like this are banned?
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