Overview

Pharmaceutical companies make important life-saving medicines. But that shouldn't give them license to drive up drug prices, ignore the risks of harmful side effects, or block needed reforms in California and in Congress.

Studies have unambiguously shown that pharmaceutical marketing encourages patients to take drugs that cost them more and that often are riskier than alternative medications.  In some cases, it encourages use of drugs that patients just don’t need.  And they work: between 2 and 7 percent of consumers who view direct to consumer ads ultimately request and receive the advertised drug.

Doctors’ prescribing habits are even more significantly affected by visits from drug company representatives.  Overall, drug companies spend $8,000 to $15,000 annually on marketing for every doctor in the United States.

Where lower-cost, generic alternatives are available, drug company marketing pushes the latest, most expensive drugs and drives up costs.  Where the product they are peddling is actively harmful, as was the case with Vioxx, the toll is obviously much greater.  And CALPIRG research has shown that often this marketing isn't even on the level: our analysis of FDA records from 2001-2005 found 150 drugs featured in ads that were false or misleading. 

Limiting this advertising would lead to more prescriptions being written on scientific merit, rather than marketing muscle.  When doctors and patients rely on unbiased science rather than salesmen’s patter, prescriptions will be more effective and more affordable.