July 19, 2007

It just doesn't get any better than this. A bunch of Beltway politicians---get this---are accusing others of misleading advertising. I refer, of course, to advertisements for new drugs---"Ask your doctor!"---which somehow now are viewed as suspect in the first three years after a drug is approved because patients don't know the risks and doctors are being pressured and we all are children who ought to spend more time hiding behind Congressman Henry Waxman's apron strings.

Well, now. It is far from clear that the provision of information to adults yields adverse effects, in that drugs, whether new or not, offer both benefits and risks. In the view of Congressman Pete Stark, however, only the risks are visible, and so the benefits of new medicines---in many cases, perhaps life itself---are a consideration to be ignored. Thus would an advertising moratorium exacerbate the too-familiar bias of the FDA: The adverse effects of approved drugs are highly visible, while the forgone benefits of drugs held off the market too long are hidden. And so, notwithstanding the usual gibberish about how the FDA is a handmaiden to Big Phrma, the reality is that the FDA has overwhelming political incentives to delay approvals too long. When the bureaucrats announce with pride that a newly approved drug will save, say, ten thousand lives per year, perhaps one of our crack reporters might point out that a direct implication is that the extra years of delay consumed in efforts to jump through all the regulatory hoops condemned many tens of thousands to early graves.

Back to advertising. The research literature shows that health outcomes are improved by advertising, and that inappropriate prescriptions are not an important outcome. And neither finding is very surprising, except to a political class that views citizens as subjects: Adults in consultation with their physicians are perfectly capable of making informed decisions about the benefits and risks of new medicines. As for the Beltway, it's the Flying Circus, today, tomorrow, forever. I need an aspirin.

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at July 19, 2007 02:28 PM

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