Guest Editorial of February 29, 2024 by Maureen Dill

Big PhRMA/Big Business, Big PhRMA/Bad Business

According to the latest report, the United States and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that permit advertising of prescription and over-the-counter drugs on television. License to promote these products on television in the U.S. came about some time in the 1980s, with the approval of the Federal Drug Administration. (If you have viewed the film “Dopesick,” starring Michael Keaton, and have seen the harm done by Purdue Pharmaceutical, you may feel as I do concerning the merits of the FDA.) Some sources suggest that permission by the FDA to promote these products on our airwaves may have been influenced not only by lobbyists in Washington, D.C., but also by physicians who had been sued by patients after having prescribed certain prescription or over-the-counter drugs.