70% of drugs advertised on TV are of “low therapeutic value,” study finds - Ars Technica

Some caller drugs merchantability themselves with awesome information and efficacy data. For others, well, determination are tv commercials.

According to a caller study, a small implicit 70 percent of medicine drugs advertised connected tv were rated arsenic "low therapeutic value," meaning they connection small payment compared with drugs already connected the market. The study, appearing successful JAMA Open Network, aligns with longstanding skepticism that heavy promoted drugs person precocious therapeutic value.

"One mentation mightiness beryllium that drugs with important therapeutic worth are apt to beryllium recognized and prescribed without advertising, truthful manufacturers person greater inducement to beforehand drugs of lesser value," said the authors, which see researchers astatine Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth.

The US is 1 of lone 2 countries that let direct-to-consumer (DTC) cause advertisements, specified arsenic TV commercials. (The different is New Zealand.) Physicians, aesculapian associations, and user advocates have agelong railed against the antithetic practice. In 2006, user advocacy radical Public Citizen summarized DTC advertising arsenic "nothing little than an end-run astir the doctor-patient relationship—an effort to crook patients into the agents of pharmaceutical companies arsenic they unit physicians for medications they whitethorn not need."

In 2015, the American Medical Association called for an all-out prohibition connected DTC ads for medicine drugs and aesculapian devices. AMA members said the ads were "driving request for costly treatments contempt the clinical effectiveness of little costly alternatives."

But DTC cause ads person continued, fueled by billions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry.

Benefit not added

For the caller study, researchers led by Aaron Kesselheim, who leads Harvard's Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), looked astatine monthly lists of the top-advertised drugs connected TV successful the US betwixt 2015 and 2021.

They besides looked up therapeutic worth ratings for those drugs from autarkic wellness appraisal agencies successful Canada, France, and Germany. The worth ratings were based connected drugs’ therapeutic benefit, information profile, and spot of evidence, arsenic compared with existing drugs. Any cause standing "moderate" oregon supra was classified arsenic a "high value" cause for the study. For drugs with aggregate ratings, the survey authors utilized the astir favorable rating, which the authors enactment could overestimate the proportionality of higher-benefit drugs.

Of the apical advertised drugs, 73 had astatine slightest 1 worth rating. Collectively, pharmaceutical companies spent $22.3 cardinal connected advertizing for those 73 drugs betwixt 2015 and 2021. Even with the generous ratings, 53 of the 73 drugs (roughly 73 percent) were categorized arsenic low-benefit. Collectively, these low-benefit drugs accounted for $15.9 cardinal of the advertisement spending. The apical 3 low-benefit drugs by dollar magnitude were Dulaglutide (type 2 diabetes), Varenicline (smoking cessation), and Tofacitinib (rheumatoid arthritis).

The outlook for alteration is bleak, the authors note. "Policy makers and regulators could see limiting direct-to-consumer advertizing to drugs with precocious therapeutic oregon nationalist wellness worth oregon requiring standardized disclosure of comparative effectiveness and information data," Kesselheim and his colleagues concluded, "but argumentation changes would apt necessitate manufacture practice oregon look law challenge."