Why are government and the AMA doing an about face on drug marketing?

Patent “medicines” are among the greatest deceptions of our time. They are products of advertising — very sophisticated and subtle advertising.

What do patent medicines do for those persuaded to take them? They are palliatives that suppress symptoms. They do nothing to “cure” or in any way enhance the immune system. Nor do they make any claims as such, but the public misses this vital point.

The federal government, through the Food and Drug Administration, unleashed the pharmaceuticals upon the American people, resulting in massive and unbelievable profits. The American people didn’t stand a dog’s chance in hell against this monstrous and deceptive fraud. What a scam! What a cash cow!

The trigger happened in 1997 when the FDA relaxed the rules for drug advertising direct to the consumer (DTC). Only the U.S. and New Zealand permit this.

The new FDA rules allowed the drug companies to make claims unimpeded as long as they offered a phone number or website or referenced a magazine ad where consumers could get the “fine print.” The FDA knows as well as you do that people don’t read the “fine print” and most don’t read at all except a few words at a time. The public was as helpless before this charade as if they were little children.

The Washington Post reports that Americans spent $329.2 billion on prescription drugs in 2013, the equivalent of about $1,000 per person. Of the top 10 drug makers, nine spent more on marketing than on research and development; several of them spent almost twice as much.

The FDA is now considering new guidelines regarding risk communication in DTC advertising. According to an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, the guidelines respond “to mounting research showing that reprinting highly technical package inserts in print ads does very little to communicate risks to consumers. The goal is to communicate those risks in a new vernacular.”

In other words, the FDA wants the contraindications and side effects printed prominently in plain English rather than legalese or doctorese. Now the American Medical Association with its 200,000 doctors has decided it wants DTC advertising of drugs and medical devices halted.

Why the sudden changes of heart? I always say follow the money.

About $4.5 billion is spent promoting prescription drugs to consumers. The cost of generic and name brand drugs has been rising for the past several years and has jumped almost 5 percent in 2015. Obamacare is bankrupting people, businesses and the already bankrupt government.

Now that the government is in the medicine business (Obamacare), it’s looking to stem the rising cost of “healthcare” services — drugs included. So while it appears the FDA is looking out for consumers, it’s really trying to save Obamacare from bankruptcy.

DTC marketing cuts into the marketing budget the drug companies have for marketing drugs to the physicians — $24 billion was spent in marketing to physicians in 2012. Physicians want an even bigger cut of the pie, especially now that Obamacare is cutting into their profits.

Finally, that list of side effects glossed over at the end of the slick TV ad — where we see beautiful people enjoying all sorts of activities thanks to the latest miracle cure — sometimes registers with even the densest of consumers who wouldn’t read the fine print if it were blown up to poster size.

When consumers learn that the pill that the ads promise will allow them to swim with their puppy puts them at much greater risk of brain aneurysm, heart attack or stroke, that little pill becomes much less attractive.

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