7 ms·
>The idea of requiring list prices of drugs to be displayed in commercials It's bizarre that prescription medication is advertised like that in the first place
by cr1895 7y ago
>The idea of requiring list prices of drugs to be displayed in commercials
It's bizarre that prescription medication is advertised like that in the first place.
- PeterisP 7y agoThe obligatory reminder like in similar threads before - in most other first world countries it's not done because it's forbidden; mass media advertisements of prescription medicine is a practice specific to USA and a couple other places.
- jjoonathan 7y agoIt used to be forbidden in the USA, too.
- Rebelgecko 7y agoWhen?
- arcticbull 7y agoExactly. In Canada you an only advertise either that a drug to treat a certain condition exists, or that a drug with a certain name exists, but not both in the same ad. Why advertise drugs to customers, they're not medical professionals - that's why we have GPs.
- SteveNuts 7y agoWhat about for OTCs? I would think most people can self-diagnose and self-treat everyday allergies, for example.
- arcticbull 7y agoSorry, to clarify, I meant prescription medication. OTCs are allowed to advertise as of 1997. [1] [1] http://theconversation.com/drug-ads-leave-canadians-in-the-dark-about-safety-risks-102317 http://theconversation.com/drug-ads-leave-canadians-in-the-d...
- sonnyblarney 7y agoYes, you can advertise Tylenol in Canada. But not Oxycontin.
- smhenderson 7y agoDoes Tylenol in Canada have a small amount of codeine in it? It did when I lived there in the 90's. Does that make a difference when it comes to advertising? If I recall correctly it was like 2 or maybe 5 mg of codeine which is a very small amount. Any dose over that needed a prescription so I wouldn't be surprised if Tylenol was considered just an OTC drug but knowing there is codeine in it made me unsure.
- sonnyblarney 7y agoYes, Tylenol 3 with codeine was available until 2018 in Canada without a prescription, oddly. But that 'loophole' would eventually be exploited by those needing their 'fix' ... so it's now prescription only. As far as I know the rule for ads is 'non prescription', beyond that it's hard. I don't recall seeing an ad for a prescription drug in Canada in the last decade, though they might exist in some form. We get American TV and those ads seem quite ridiculous, what with the senior citizens dancing away, and the narrator iterating through a huge list of symptoms, then listing off 30 or 40 side effects as fast as he can, as if people are remotely capable of understanding. My family works in the drug industry, I should say one thing that people don't want to hear: a lot of doctors are lazy. Just because they're doctors, does not mean that they keep up in any way with current issues, trends. The level of power they have, and the relative lack of ongoing certification is ridiculous. Once they get their ticket, it's a golden ride for the rest of their lives if they want. Many people complain about the 'free lunch' doctor's visits by the sales reps, but I don't see it as such a bad thing. It's intense and important information, I have no problem with Doctors getting a 'free ham sandwich' to entice them to go through the data on the latest trials. Obviously, there are shenanigans there, misrepresentation, competitive issues, pricing etc. etc. - but frankly a 'highly moral sales/communication force' actually I think does add value - they get doctors to pay attention to the specific issues. Obviously, there are probably better alternatives ... but again, Doctor's guilds are very powerful and archaic, nobody can tell them what to do.
- cVwEq 7y agoWhy advertise drugs to customers, they're not medical professionals - that's why we have GPs. Frankly (and maybe it's different in Canada), but I feel like people will have better health outcomes if they are aware of the options and consult, work with, and even challenge if need be, their GP. GPs (or Primary Care Physicians, PCPs in the U.S.) share some goals with their patients, but many goals are not shared: * Spending less money / good drug success / less side effects vs. using only tests/drugs they GP is comfortable with * Avoiding lawsuits vs. candid discussion * Taking time to research medical hypotheses vs. needing to get to the next patient Come to think of it, if one is willing to invest the time, have an inquisitive mind, and demand a partnership relationship with most service providers, perhaps that person will generally have better outcomes in many areas (home repairs, dental, car service, etc.).
- arcticbull 7y agoThe only thing drug companies are incentivized to do is make money and you’re giving them a side channel to an uninformed audience, then they go and whack the trained professionals over the head with this data and risk they don’t understand because TV told them.
- ceejayoz 7y agoYou can do all that without needing advertisements, if you're so inclined.
- smsm42 7y agoWait, so the ad goes "We have this wonderful new drug Blablagmuglub, but we can't tell you what it's for - you'd have to ask your doctor, maybe it treats exactly the condition you have!"? How that makes any sense? Or it goes "there's a drug that cures your acute bonitis, but we can't tell you how it is called"? How that's an ad for anything? That sounds like a way to ban drug advertisement completely, so why not just come out and say it upfront that drug manufacturers are not allowed to publicly speak about any prescription drugs they manufacture?
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y agoDamn straight. Sane countries don't put up with this shit. I don't watch normal TV so when I do see these ads they never fail to remind me what an oligarchic dystopia my country has become.
- metalliqaz 7y agoIt can get so, so much worse.
- pdpi 7y agoHow much worse can it get while most of the population still honestly believes it's great, though? Getting China out of the hole it's in would be much harder than reversing the course on US politics, but only if US citizens stop fooling themselves into thinking they're in "the best country in the world".
- zzzeek 7y agoWe have a president who is complicit in assisting with state sanctioned murder of US journalists, and people don't seem to be very upset about it
- ameister14 7y agoCould you clarify what US journalists President Trump has assisted in murdering?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- zzzeek 7y agoJamal Khashoggi. I guess moderators thought I was suggesting he was involved in the murder itself, rather than obstructing an appropriate diplomatic response. Sort of proves my point that nobody cares.
- mwfunk 7y agoAgreed, I think it's crazy. I don't know what's more surreal, the fact that those ads are 50% recitations of side effects (which they have to say, but surely it makes them think twice about advertising), or the inevitable "ask your doctor if <blank> is right for you". What?!? I would hope that if it was, my doctor would already know about it and have prescribed it for me. If not- new freaking doctor time.
- jlmorton 7y agoIt's not that strange for new medications. Here's a personal example. Lots of people suffer from hyperhidrosis, which is excessive sweating, generally on the palms, feet, or armpits, where sweat glands are clustered. There have never been great treatments. There are all sorts of them, but many of them just don't work, or have horrific side effects. Among these is a drug called glycopyrronium bromide, which is an anticholinergic. Taken orally, it absolutely cures hyperhidrosis dead in its tracks. It also has a tendency to dry up every part of your body that should naturally be lubricated in some way. Imagine your mouth, tongue and throat so dry you can barely form the movements necessary to speak. Imagine your eyes so dry you can barely blink. Imagine your nose dry and cracking and frequently bleeding. Lots of people would have talked to their physicians about this in the past, and lots of people would have tried options available to solve the problem, including surgical options. But all of those options were either terrible, or did little to alleviate the fundamental problem. And then in 2018 there was a new treatment developed, qbrexza, essentially the same drug, but delivered as a topical cloth treatment. It turns out this drug is not readily absorbed into the surrounding bloodstream, and in any event doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier at all. It turns out that topical treatment works quite well for the primary purpose, with significantly reduced side effects. But imagine you've already talked to your doctor about this problem, years ago, tried several remedies, and none of them worked. Imagine you had already given up on seeking treatment. Then you see an advertisement on TV for your particular affliction. It sounds like a new, and promising avenue of treatment. And so you decide to go back to your doctor, and ask about this new treatment, which never existed before. And you never would have done that, probably ever, if you hadn't seen the advertisement. How many drug advertisements do you see for old drugs? Not that many. There are some, for very common ailments like hypertension. But primarily drug advertisements are focused on new drugs. It's not that odd to advertise a new treatment. There are still doctors that need to evaluate patients and prescribe the medication. If doctors are prescribing useless medication to patients, that seems like the primary problem to me, not the advertisements.
- mfatica 7y agoMaybe there's a gap for some kind of doctor-patient communication application? The idea is a new drug like this comes out and a doctor can go into their system and send some notification to their patients
- wingspar 7y agoUntil I saw an tv ad for Paxil, I didn’t know social anxiety disorder was a thing... visited their website, took their ‘survey’ and talked to my Dr. Started taking it and it was very helpful. Then after a few years, I didn’t need it anymore.
- falsedan 7y agoYeah, see, here your GP would refer you to a psychiatric provider (probably a nurse) or you’d see it a pamphlet in the waiting room when you came to talk about how you feel because you saw your doctor more than once every 2 years because you weren’t terrified by how much it cost/if you would lose your job taking time off work.
- wingspar 7y agoAt the time, my healthcare was fully paid for with small copays. Went to Dr as needed. The issue is, that until I saw the Paxil add talking about social anxiety. I thought I was just very shy, so why would I talk to my dr about that? The Ad changed my life.
- falsedan 7y agoIt worked for you but consider the vast population who are not as privileged to have easy access to health care. Do the ads help them? Will their lives be improved by more ads, or by removing barriers that make it harder to get medical assistance (physical & mental)?