1997

Via Federal Drug Administration Modernization Act. FDA relaxes restrictions on promotion of pharmaceuticals, allowing direct to consumer (DTC) advertising via guidelines for product-specific prescription drug broadcast advertisements that permitted (1) product claim advertisements; (2) reminder advertisements; and (3) so-called help-seeking advertisements that told consumers about unspecified treatment possibilities for diseases or conditions. FDA’s “Draft Guidance for Industry: Consumer-Directed Broadcast Advertisements” spelled out ways drug firms could meet the “brief summary requirements” in broadcast ads by referring consumers to a toll-free phone number, print ads, a website, and/or their pharmacists or physicians for complete info about a drug’s risks and benefits (Donohue, 685). Broadcast DTCA ads “focus on chronic problems affecting relatively healthy people, with large potential treatment populations and long-term usage, including drugs for allergy, anxiety, obesity, arthritis, erectile dysfunction, and high cholesterol. About 20 prescription drugs make up 60 per cent of the pharmaceutical company spending on DTCA (Hollon, 2005)” (Conrad & Leiter I, 832). Act also eases limitations on manufacturers re advertising off-label use of their products to physicians (Conrad & Leiter II, 161, 166). DTCA advertising rose from $1.3 billion in 1998 to $3.3 billion in 2005 (Donohue, 685-686).