Healthy Skepticism Library item: 4708

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: report

Caplovitz A
Turning Medicine Into Snake Oil: How Pharmaceutical Marketers put Patients at Risk
Trenton NJ: NJPIRG Law and Policy Center 2006
http://njpirg.org/reports/TurningMedintoSnakeOil.pdf

Abstract:

False and misleading prescription drug advertising
is common and dangerous. Prescription drug
marketers are inundating doctors, and to a
lesser extent, the public, with marketing that
misrepresents risks, promotes unproven uses,
and makes unsubstantiated claims. Th e false and
misleading messages are communicated through
conventional advertising, sales representatives,
doctors speaking on behalf of drug marketers, and
through clinical trial suppression, manipulation
and misrepresentation. Sadly, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is ineff ective at addressing
the problems. Th is report takes a comprehensive
look at all of these facets of the prescription
drug marketing problem and suggests eff ective
solutions.