Analyzing the side effects of drug ads
4 март 2008, USA Today
A few times every week, patients ask Jim King about drugs they've seen advertised.
"They'll say, 'I saw this ad on TV, and I think I have this medical problem,' " says King, a family physician in Selmer, Tenn., who says he's not bothered by the requests. "It gives me an opportunity to talk with the patient. It's amazing how many don't have the problem" or need the drug they saw advertised.
Billy Tauzin, president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry's lobbying group, says the ads educate patients about diseases such as depression or diabetes and encourage them to see a doctor.
Doctors and health care analysts say those visits also prompt patients to seek the latest and often most expensive drug, helping to drive up spending on health care and raising questions about whether patients need those particular new medications.
The Food and Drug Administration has allowed drug advertising since 1997. After safety concerns led drugmaker Merck to pull its heavily advertised painkiller Vioxx off the market in October 2004, Congress and consumer groups such as Public Citizen escalated their criticism of drug ads.
The industry responded with guidelines it said would improve consumer information. Ads are "less offensive than they were a few years ago, more educational, and they balance a discussion of benefits and risk," Tauzin says.
Prescription-drug advertising is big business. The pharmaceutical industry in 2006 spent $4.8 billion on consumer ads, according to IMS Health, a private firm that tracks sales and marketing. The industry spent $7.2 billion more marketing products to doctors.
Consumer advertising has "contributed to overall increases in spending on both the advertised drug itself and on other drugs that treat the same conditions," says a Government Accountability Office report from 2006. It cites another study of 64 drugs that found for every $1 spent on advertising, sales increased by a median of $2.20.
Endocrinologist...
Контролът върху количеството му в тялото всъщност не е толкова сложен и е по силите на всеки.
Някои продукти доказано не само не прибавят допълнителни килограми, но и изгарят излишните мазнини.
Много от най-популярните диети всъщност се отхвърлят от науката.
