Question

With the development of information technology, advertising is becoming more intrusive in our daily lives.

Discuss the pros and cons of advertising of medical and pharmaceutical products? Should the government impose more restrictions on advertising on these products? If so, under what conditions?

Answer 1

Many countries do not allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise to patients directly. However, in the U.S., the regulations were changed in 1997 and pharmaceutical companies no longer had to include alerts about signs and side effects that patients need in advertising. Since then, direct-to-consumer television, radio and magazine advertising has grown faster than the other marketing activities of the industry most of which are still aimed at doctors who have the authority to prescribe.

The truth of rivalry is two-fold. Another is you've been paying to recruit the next sales rep, at least through 1998 and for many businesses through 2000. You've been paid to do that next product ad. By doing so, you generated returns for your investors. So it is kind of hard to let go of that near-term historical reality. It's a financially working strategy. Now it's not working so well. The second, we are in the dilemma of this prisoner. Everybody starts to think that the next salesperson isn't such a good idea. It's more of a defensive investment than that. Everyone is afraid of first going back down. From the point of view of fair trade, they can not get into the room and call a truce.

According to a survey conducted by the FDA in 2004, 88 percent of doctors who had patients inquiring about medications seen in DTC advertisements indicated that patients had the drug treatment requirements and were therefore able to receive medication. Procrit, for example, is a drug used to counteract anemia and can be used to assist patients with tired chemotherapy. It was rarely prescribed before an ad campaign for the medication because patients with chemotherapy did not report to their physicians exhaustion caused by chemotherapy. Nonetheless, after seeing the ad, patients indicated exhaustion and could be treated appropriately In 2007, the FDA approved a fibromyalgic medication, a disease that had not previously been treated with a drug, and people with the disorder were made aware of a possible treatment with DTC prescription drug advertisements and were able to speak to their physicians about treatment.