There is no need to advertise prescription medicines. There have been studies that show the ads increase the number of people who go to see the doctor, and they insist that is a good thing, but I'm not so sure.
For instance, one company is now running an ad for the product "Singulair". It's hard to tell what the drug is for by watching the ad, but all the kids at camp sure are enjoing it. At the beginning of the TV spot, there is a bus dropping the kids off at camp. If you look closely you can see the name of the camp on the front of the bus:
"Camp Watchatakin"
(What-ya-takin')
When I went to summer camp (I went to a lot of camps), I can only recall two kids out of hundreds that went to see the nurse for pills daily. One was an epileptic and the other was hyperactive. I wonder what percentage of kids are taking pills daily now? Is there a line out the nurse's door at lunch, kids waiting for their next pill to halt the sniffles or calm them?
I argue that the drug ads on TV are propping up big profit-makers for the drug industry, and a lot of these prescriptions are unnecessary, and the government is happy to go along with it. I am not against drug companies making a profit, but isn't medicine a higher calling? The ads are what I call "comfort drugs", they give you a hug, make grow hair, enlarge your manhood or whatever. Pills that are useful and have a place, but they're not life-saving medicines, they're kinda like add-ons. When the add-ons are the profit makers, where is the incentive to make cures for debilitating or life threatening diseases? Where is the incentive for a cure...if the goal is profit, then drug companies would benefit from making drugs that you have to continue taking for life rather than drugs that you take once and are cured forever. Where is the profit in that?
I have read (but cannot source) that drug companies spend more on advertising than research. That is completely out of whack, and a disgrace to our culture.
I think it's time we take a hard look at the health care system as a whole, and get the best minds together to come up with solutions. Hillary couldn't do it, as a politician she was doomed to fail from the start, this is a fight that needs to be led by doctors and lawyers (ug!)....the private sector needs to take the lead. Health care costs are spiraling upward and it's having a dramatic effect on the economy for average people who pay for health insurance. If the private sector can't police itself better, and provide health care at a reasonable price for all Americans, it's probably in part due to the natural influence of capitalism in the drug marketplace. Maybe the government does need to take a bigger role in policing the health care system.
A easy place to start would be more restrictions on advertising prescription drugs to the public. Could we require drug companies to spend at least 10X more on research than advertising? Could we allow drug companies to run ads that don't mention the product at all, only list symptoms and tell consumers to ask their doctor about drugs? Or are we doomed to have our kids come home from camp asking "Daddy, I want to take pills like Sally, and Jill, and Jimmy, and Alice and....."
Camp Watchatakin. Ug!