4 ms·

That’s so messed up. What do you think of advertisements for drugs in general? Have they been helpful finding treatment for your condition ? They are illegal wh

That’s so messed up. What do you think of advertisements for drugs in general? Have they been helpful finding treatment for your condition ? They are illegal where i’m from i believe (i’ve never seen one myself except in the us). Btw, this reminds of this absolutely hilarious story i think i first heard of here on HN: https://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking-my-roommate-with-targeted-facebook-ads/ https://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking...

merpnderp 7y ago
I’m betting these advertisements are for healthcare providers.
RL_Quine 7y ago
There’s basically one treatment, and one only that any specialist would recommend at this point, so it’s effectively moot other than the question of it being covered by whatever healthcare or insurance you can muster up. The alternative and older drugs tend to have some rather horrific side effects (detaching your retinas, making your skin detach in some cases) but are very cheap, nobody would choose them if they had the better option. I’m sort of confused in general what advertising for these sort of drugs actually achieves. It’s not like the patient really has a deciding ability (other than live or die if they can’t afford it), so all it does is act as a constant reminder of how financially screwed you are.
thfuran 7y ago
There's basically some segment of the population who will demand $SOME_DRUG_THEY_SAW_ADS_FOR and will change doctors repeatedly until they can get a prescription for it, even if there are better alternatives that were recommended by the previous doctors. Eliminating direct advertisement won't completely avoid that since there will always be blogs full of crazy nonsense or whatever, but I don't think there's any reason that consumers should be getting targeted for ads for things they can't even legally buy.
- noir_lord 7y ago
  It's illegal to do that in the UK and therefore we have no (major) issues like you describe. One of those regulations that is a net good to society. Interesting video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k

merpnderp 7y ago

I’m betting these advertisements are for healthcare providers.

RL_Quine 7y ago

There’s basically one treatment, and one only that any specialist would recommend at this point, so it’s effectively moot other than the question of it being covered by whatever healthcare or insurance you can muster up. The alternative and older drugs tend to have some rather horrific side effects (detaching your retinas, making your skin detach in some cases) but are very cheap, nobody would choose them if they had the better option. I’m sort of confused in general what advertising for these sort of drugs actually achieves. It’s not like the patient really has a deciding ability (other than live or die if they can’t afford it), so all it does is act as a constant reminder of how financially screwed you are.

thfuran 7y ago

There's basically some segment of the population who will demand $SOME_DRUG_THEY_SAW_ADS_FOR and will change doctors repeatedly until they can get a prescription for it, even if there are better alternatives that were recommended by the previous doctors. Eliminating direct advertisement won't completely avoid that since there will always be blogs full of crazy nonsense or whatever, but I don't think there's any reason that consumers should be getting targeted for ads for things they can't even legally buy.

noir_lord 7y ago
It's illegal to do that in the UK and therefore we have no (major) issues like you describe. One of those regulations that is a net good to society. Interesting video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic_FpRG7Z_k