Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Direct To Consumer Drug Advertisements: A Dangerous Game Of Pitching Products To Parents, Lynne Graziano

Annual Conference Presentations, Papers, and Posters

The annual budget for drug advertising in the United States exceeds that for all undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and comes close to the entire budget of the National Institutes of Health. In 2008 drug advertisers spent $4.7 billion, down from a record $4.8 billion in 2006, but up from $2.6 billion in 2002. Since the relaxation of full disclosure rules for television advertising, the amount spent on direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCA) has soared, leading to increased sales of certain pharmaceuticals, as advertisements are placed in magazines, newspapers, internet websites and on television. These prescription-drug ads prompt nearly one-third of Americans …

Promoting, Prescribing, And Pushing Pills: Understanding The Lessons Of Antipsychotic Drug Litigation, Douglas Mossman Md, Jill L. Steinberg

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Ineffectiveness of prescription drugs, hidden drug hazards, and advertising violations have led to several drug recalls and numerous lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies in recent years. These suits have involved several varieties of medications, but psychoactive medications have figured especially prominently. A recent $1.4 billion settlement by Eli Lilly & Company related to improper promotion of its top-selling drug olanzapine included the largest individual corporate criminal fine in U.S. history.

Improper promotion is far from the sole reason why olanzapine and other “second-generation” antipsychotic (SGA) drugs have become so successful. Rather, the widespread adoption of SGAs represents a collective judgment error …

Whose Standards? An Examination Of Community Attitudes Towards Australian Advertising, Sandra C. Jones, Katherine Eagleton

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

There is considerable ongoing debate in Australia, as in other countries, about the ethicality of current advertising practices. In recent years there has been an increase in the public focus on offensive or unacceptable advertising – such as overt sex appeals, racial vilification, and promotion of unsafe use of consumer products – arguing that many of these advertisements (ads) are contrary to community standards. The industry, on the other hand, argues that it produces ads that are designed to meet and appeal to community standards. There is no comprehensive data on the nature of community standards in relation to advertising, …

Industry Partnerships For Health Nonprofits And Disease Awareness Advertising, Danika Hall, Sandra C. Jones, Donald C. Iverson

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Marketing partnerships between non-profit organisations (NPOs) and industry generally bring favourable results for both parties (Brønn and Vrioni 2001; Varadarajan and Menon 1988). However, there is some scepticism about corporate exploitation of such arrangements and growing concern in Australia and elsewhere about partnerships between the pharmaceutical industry and NPOs (Angell 2006; Moynihan and Cassels 2005) and the co-sponsorship of Disease Awareness Advertising (DAA). This paper reports the findings from a study of how Australian women respond to DAA with differing sponsors including their ability to identify, and their attitude toward, the sponsor. The results are of importance for health NPOs …