boringburner

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for giving me hope in our politics and our country's future.

I wanted to ask you a question about pharmaceutical advertising. There are only two countries, the US and New Zealand, that allow direct to consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising with product claims.

In an ideal world, consumers would be knowledgeable enough and information would flow freely enough such that this practice only added information for them to make more informed decisions. But in practice, there are many negative effects from this practice.

• It is often a way for certain companies to manipulate audiences and maintain an entrenched advantage, moving medicine away from being evidence based.

• This practice gives pharmaceutical companies undue influence over media companies as their biggest customers. Pharmaceutical companies even have a seat on media boards if I'm not mistaken.

• It becomes an arms race and diverts money away from far more important things-- for instance, almost every top pharmaceutical company spends more on marketing than on R&D, sometimes by a factor of more than 2:1.

Would you disallow or regulate this practice?

Otherwise known as propaganda

Literally several posts every day ridiculing anti vax

Hard to believe it’s coming organically from users