(U-WIRE) - These days it seems like there are as many drug commercials on television as beer commercials, and both provide almost no product information. Remember the commercial with the guy throwing the football through the swing? Erectile dysfunction. The older couple sitting in bathtubs on a scenic overlook? Also erectile dysfunction. Instead of being up front about their product, these over-priced campaigns are intent on pushing medication on uneducated viewers.
The ads often tell you how some product, say Prilosec, will revolutionize your life - even if it is for repeated heartburn and your heartburn is infrequent. It makes taking drugs seem as simple as eating chicken soup. Then the commercials end with a high-speed and muted blurb about consulting your doctor and sometimes life-threatening side effects. Since drug companies have been allowed by the national Food and Drug Administration to air direct to customer (DTC) television commercials, Americans have been swindled even more by big business.
Prilosec, better known in TV ads as "the purple pill," is a good example. After its patent expired last year, a company came out with a generic version, underselling AstraZeneca PLC, the pharmaceutical company that makes Prilosec. AstraZeneca PLC responded with a new product, Prilosec OTC, an over-the-counter version of the drug that costs less than $1 a day. Prescription Prilosec costs three times as much as Prilosec OTC, yet contains the same dosage level as the nonprescription medication - normally the over-the-counter medication has a lower dosage. Procter & Gamble now holds a three-year monopoly on marketing exclusivity before generic alternatives can be sold without a prescription, giving the company a huge chunk of the $1.2 billion per year heartburn sufferers spend on over-the-counter remedies.
Advocates of DTC drug advertising claim that if a drug is safe and effective, it does its manufacturer little good if the company cannot then target the consumers who actually buy. Advocates also claim that drug advertising alerts consumers that a treatment exists for a condition - for example, nasal sprays and transdermal nicotine patches for cigarette addiction. It can also inform consumers that a particular health problem (e.g., a frequent urge to urinate) may have a source (e.g., prostate enlargement) requiring diagnosis by a physician.
Consumers do buy these medications, but doctors must prescribe them. The advantage of informing consumers that health problems have a source is an overstatement. Of course there is a source. There are thousands upon thousands of medical conditions in existence today, but advertisements mainly target conditions that will sell drugs, like erectile dysfunction.
As the recent scandal with ephedrine and other "herbal" treatments with potentially life-endangering side effects revealed, drug companies aren't always worried about the health of their customer. Similarly, a little heartburn doesn't always mean you need prescription drugs. But you wouldn't know that from the commercials.