The Pros And Cons Of Pharmaceutical Advertising

Pharmaceutical companies have a wide variety of scientific evidence based on their previous and most recent clinical trials on every type of drug they introduce in the advertising world. However, one of the few problems they are facing is that there is too much information being presented to the consumer during broadcast advertisements. In turn due to the overwhelming amount of information, consumers are missing key medical facts that are needed to make an informed decision regarding their health. While all ads appear to list both the positives and negatives of the medication, some advertisements may be more misleading than others.

The Food and Drug administration states that “Under the regulations, pharmaceutical companies are required to submit all drug advertisements to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when they are first disseminated to the public” (Prescription Drugs). Federal regulation on the pharmaceutical ads state that broadcast ads should have a fair balance of benefits and risk information about the product they are talking about. Every pharmaceutical company is supposed to adhere by

These advertisements have been known to give a large amount of information in a brief period of time that leaves viewers with some questions that remain unanswered until they reach out to their physicians or the internet. Print ads must also have a fair balance of the risks and benefits of the medication, but should also include the side effects, contradictions and overall effectiveness of that medication. “Drug ads were required to include both the name of the drug and its purpose, as well as information about all the side effects. But side-effect information often took two or three magazine pages of mouse print to catalog, and this wouldn’t do for a major television campaign” (Spiegel