Healthy Skepticism Library item: 4470

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Miracle drugs or media drugs?
Consumer Reports 1992 Mar142-146

Abstract:

Drug companies want consumers’ attention and they are stepping up their efforts to get it, focusing on a new audience: the drug buying public. They know that while the doctor writes the prescription, the patient often guides the pen. Nearly one third of prescriptions for new products are now written at the request of the patient. Beyonnd creating public demand, mass media is also a direct route to physicians as doctors often get their medical news from newspapers first. Sometimes journalists are willing accomplishes of the drug industry, but more often they’re skillfully misled by doctors who are paid company employees being passed off as independent experts and by press conferences and press releases. Companies hire celebrities to sell their drugs without telling the public that the celebrities are being paid. Public relations firms are hired to put positive spins on stories in the medical literature. Many reporters cover medical stories part-time and can be misled by drug company propaganda. Companies will try and hide their involvement in promotion by working through seemingly independent third parties such as patient organizations. If an appropriate third party isn’t available for partnership, sometimes drug companies invent one. In the past the Food and Drug Administration didn’t pay much attention to these new forms of promotion but that is changing now.

Keywords:
*feature story/United States/public relations firms/DTCA/direct-to-consumer advertising/journalists// corporate funding/ regulation of promotion/ patient groups/ celebrities/ FDA/ Food and Drug Administration/ press conferences and releases/endorsements/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER ADVERTISING/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: CONSUMERS AND PATIENTS/INFLUENCE OF PROMOTION: JOURNALISTS/PROMOTION AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION: JOURNALISTS/PROMOTION BY THIRD PARTIES: PATIENT ORGANIZATIONS/PROMOTION BY THIRD PARTIES: RESEARCHERS/PROMOTION DISGUISED: PRESS CONFERENCES AND PRESS COVERAGE/PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: ENDORSEMENTS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: DIRECT GOVERNMENT REGULATION/SPONSORSHIP: JOURNALISTS/SPONSORSHIP: PATIENT AND CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS