Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9102

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: Journal Article

William-Jones B.
'Be ready against cancer, now': direct-to-consumer advertising for genetic testing.
New Genet Soc 2006 Apr; 25:(1):89-107
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17312631&query_hl=11&itool=pubmed_DocSum

Abstract:

A recent addition to the debate about the benefits and harms of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of medicines and pharmaceuticals is a growing critique of DTC marketing and sale of genetic tests. Academic and policy literatures exploring this issue have, however, tended to focus on the sale of genetic tests, paying rather less attention to the particular implications of advertising. The globalization of broadcast media and ever increasing access to the Internet mean that public exposure to advertising for medical technologies is a reality that national regulatory bodies will be hard pressed to constrain. Working through a case study detailing Myriad Genetics’ 2002 pilot advertising campaign for their BRACAnalysis genetic susceptibility test for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, this paper highlights some of the diverse and often overlooked and unregulated approaches to DTC advertising, and the associated social, ethical and policy implications.

Keywords:
Publication Types: Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH Terms: Advertising/ethics* Advertising/methods* Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis* Breast Neoplasms/genetics* Canada Consumer Participation Europe Female Genes, BRCA1* Genes, BRCA2* Genetic Screening/economics* Genetic Screening/ethics* Genetic Services/economics Government Regulation Humans Industry Internet Mass Media United States