Direct-to-consumer

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Direct-to-consumer advertising must be banned as part of FDA reform Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

It is this direct-to-consumer advertising, in fact, that is largely responsible for the over-medication of people with dangerous drugs such as Vioxx. This direct-to-consumer advertising continues today, and it is adding to the problem by creating an over-medicated nation where patients think they have to make a list of advertised drugs, then go to their doctor and request them by name.

The first is direct-to-consumer advertising. The second is the funding of the FDA. And the third is the drug side effects reporting system. These three fundamental problems need to be addressed immediately if we are to live in a nation where we aren't killing our citizens with our own products that are actually safety approved by the government itself. To put all this into perspective, keep in mind that prescription drugs have killed far more Americans, in fact thousands of times more Americans, than all terrorists combined.

The most obvious of these is the legalization of direct-to-consumer advertising by drug companies. This decision was made in 1997 and it allowed drug companies to place ads on television, in magazines, newspapers, billboards and other media with the purported goal of "educating" consumers about prescription drugs. And yet the very premise is laughable. No reasonable person could possibly believe that drug companies should advertising prescription drugs to patients who don't have medical qualifications to even understand if they should use those drugs in the first place.

The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith See book keywords and concepts

Direct-to-consumer ads is a new trend and one that is predicted to strengthen; in 1997 drug companies spent about $1 billion on direct-to-consumer ads, but by 2004 that number had increased to more than $4 billion. Drug companies rely so much on profit generated from drugs, especially new ones attached to active patents, that they've begun persuasive marketing campaigns targeting consumers direcuy. In doing so, many times they will angle an ad to make you think you need this pill or that potion to live a healthier, longer life (as in "Ask your doctor if X is right for you."

You may have noticed the deluge of advertisements from drug companies in the media in the past several years. direct-to-consumer ads is a new trend and one that is predicted to strengthen; in 1997 drug companies spent about $1 billion on direct-to-consumer ads, but by 2004 that number had increased to more than $4 billion. Drug companies rely so much on profit generated from drugs, especially new ones attached to active patents, that they've begun persuasive marketing campaigns targeting consumers direcuy.

The health care reform legislation that Congress should pass, but won't Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Ban direct-to-consumer drug advertising Drug companies whooped and high-fived each other when they convinced the FDA to legalize direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising in 1997. It didn't take much convincing, actually, since the FDA guys were all getting drunk at the same party. Since then, consumers have been walloped with mostly false advertising touting fictitious benefits for dangerous drugs.

Senate, House agree on FDA reform; key provisions remain but FDA remains threat to America Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

There's not even a ban on direct-to-consumer drug advertising -- an unjustifiable practice that's directly responsible for the huge increase in drug side effects (adverse events reporting) and drug deaths over the last few years. As I have stated on this website many times, it is no exaggeration to say that the number of Americans killed by FDA-prescription drugs each year greatly exceeds the number of Americans killed in the entire Vietnam War.

The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told About Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George See book keywords and concepts

Despite the barrage of direct-to-consumer advertising you are exposed to that seems to suggest drug companies are producing a steady stream of innovative medicines, the success of the industry's research and development efforts has been slowing down just as genomics and a variety of other approaches have come along with the promise of improving the efficiency of drug development.

NewsTarget readers making waves across the natural health, natural living markets (opinion) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

You're forwarding articles to friends, posting our CounterThink cartoons on websites, buying our books from Truth Publishing and taking grassroots action on subjects that really matter (like trying to help us ban direct-to-consumer drug advertising, which would save tens of thousands of lives each year in the United States alone). When vendors call me with compliments, they're talking about YOU! "NewsTarget readers are the greatest!" they'll say. Or, "Where did you find such wonderful people?

Analysis: Senate committee approves drug safety bill, but FDA still runs on Big Pharma money - UPDATE 1 Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

The top five reforms we really need 1) Ban all direct-to-consumer drug advertising. It never should have been legalized in the first place. There is no logical medical argument that justifies the practice of promoting prescription drugs directly to consumers. 2) Fund the FDA entirely with public money. It's crucial to disconnect the FDA from the purse strings of Big Pharma. FDA funding should come from those it answers to: the taxpayers. 3) Make the reporting of drug side effects mandatory.

Hawaiian macadamia nut farmers face economic devastation due to false labeling of imported mac nuts as "Hawaiian" Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Direct sales keep small farmers in business In many agricultural areas, the small, local farmer is increasingly dependant on direct-to-consumer sales to remain in business. Selling mac nuts (or almost any other agricultural commodity, actually) to mega-business food corporations is a fast track to personal bankruptcy. Right now, in fact, when Hawaiian mac nut processors even offer to buy the nuts from local farmers, the dollar amount offered amounts to a net loss to the farmer. The small guys can only stay in business by selling direct to consumers.

Too Profitable to Cure Brent Hoadley, Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

Further corporate assistance came in the form of direct-to-consumer advertising that was at the least deceitful, if not outright fraudulent. Human insulin (rDNA) was allowed to be described as "just like that made by the human body" — a half-truth at best. It was promoted as "better" than other insulins currently available. Again, this was a lie based on economics and on lack of unbiased research at reputable universities/medical centers.

FDA tyranny to become law: HR.2900 analysis by Richards and Adams Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

The great Congressional sellout Congress had the potential to pass a really good law here -- one that would have ended direct-to-consumer advertising, banned conflicts of interest at the FDA, required the open source publication of drug trials and ended the U.S. monopoly on pharmaceuticals. Instead, Congress chose to do none of these things. It staged a song and dance about "FDA reform" while selling out the future of America's health to a tiny but powerful group of ultra-wealthy corporations that now virtually rule this country.

Supplement Your Prescription: What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutrition Hyla Cass, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

They're accused of placing profit over people and cranking out products that are not as safe or effective as the direct-to-consumer advertisements would suggest. They encourage you to "just ask your doctor" about taking an antidepressant to cheer you up, or a sedative to help you sleep, followed by a rapid-fire list of side effects. In her scathing book, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do about It (Random House, 2004), Marcia Angell, M.D.

Big Pharma takes over veterinary medicine; dogs and cats drugged with chemicals for profit Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

It was an easy sell: Most consumers already demonstrate a cult-like belief in pharmaceutical medicine thanks to a barrage of direct-to-consumer advertising funded by deep-pocketed drug companies, and it was only a minor shift to get them to believe animals need synthetic chemicals in their bodies, too. So today, the majority of veterinarians in the United States now practice chemical-based medicine on pets. At the first sign of any health symptom, they slap the animal with a prescription for expensive, patented pharmaceuticals.

FTC sues Kevin Trudeau over weight loss claims while ignoring Big Pharma monopoly pricing Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Why won't the FTC investigate these blatant exaggerations found in direct-to-consumer drug advertisements? Will no one investigate the pharmaceutical pricing monopoly? Here's another big question: Isn't the FTC supposed to protect consumers by investigating and breaking up corporate monopolies? They sued Microsoft over the inclusion of a web browser in Windows (the horror of it!), and they've broken up monopoly phone companies in the past. Why are they doing nothing over the monopoly pricing and distribution practices of the drug companies?

The hoax of modern medicine: Seven facts you need to know Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

No one is talking seriously about banning soda ads and junk food ads to children, and Big Pharma has bought off lawmakers so completely that there's also no serious discussion of ways to end the madness of direct-to-consumer drug advertising (a dubious practice that isn't even allowed in most other countries). Rather than protecting the people, politicians are now in bed with the powerful corporations selling foods, drugs and personal care products that actually harm people. There is no real defender of the people who remains in power in Washington.

Incessant disease mongering turns Americans into profit-generating guinea pigs for Big Pharma (opinion) Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

Secondly, we've got to end the ridiculous practice of direct-to-consumer drug advertising. There is absolutely no justifiable reason why prescription drugs should be marketed directly to patients on television. It is only allowed because it is profitable, not because it serves any scientifically justifiable function in society. And third, it's time to conduct a serious investigation into the crimes against America that have been committed by top FDA officials.

The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie Craig Pepin-Donat See book keywords and concepts

In October 2002, at the request of members of Congress, the agency submitted a report called "Prescription Drugs, FDA Oversight of direct-to-consumer Advertising Has Limitations." The report confirmed that drugs with high DTC spending were among the best-selling drugs. In 2000, 22 of the 50 drugs with the highest advertising spending were among the top 50 in sales, and sales of drugs with the highest DTC spending rose more quickly than sales of other drugs.

The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing Gary Null and Amy McDonald See book keywords and concepts

Redmond, Wash., a direct-to-consumer DNA testing firm. Prozac: Abstracts of Recent Scientific Research_ Fluoxetine dose-increment related akathisia in depression: implications for clinical care, recognition and management of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor-induced akathisia.Hansen L.- Department of Psychiatry, Royal South Hants, Southampton, UK. lh4@soton.ac.uk J Psychopharma-col. 2003 Dec;17(4):451-2. We report the case of a 22-year-old woman presenting major depressive episode with severe akathisia after an increase in fluoxetine.

Supplement Your Prescription: What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutrition Hyla Cass See book keywords and concepts

They're accused of placing profit over people and cranking out products that are not as safe or effective as the direct-to-consumer advertisements would suggest. They encourage you to "just ask your doctor" about taking an antidepressant to cheer you up, or a sedative to help you sleep, followed by a rapid-fire list of side effects. In her scathing book, The Truth about the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do about It (Random House, 2004), Marcia Angell, M.D.

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs Melody Petersen See book keywords and concepts

Of course there are overreaching business practices that some pharmaceutical companies sometimes utilize, such as selling too hard, charging too much, or taking advantage of consumer ignorance with overstated direct-to-consumer advertising," wrote Howard Solomon, the chairman of Forest Laboratories, in a letter to shareholders in 2002. "And, of course, it is appropriate to criticize, and in a proper case, to take action against such excesses but, at the same time, to realize that all businesses have comparable excesses.

Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health J. Douglas Bremner See book keywords and concepts

Other pressures are also behind the increase in antidepressant prescriptions. direct-to-consumer advertising in the U.S. is also driving up antidepressant usage. Interestingly, by making consumers more likely to talk to their doctors about going on a medication, when patients ask for an antidepressant, they get it 76% of the time compared to patients with the same symptoms who don't ask to go on antidepressants, who are given antidepressant prescriptions only 31 % of the time. Antidepressants are approved by the FDA for the treatment of several disorders in addition to depression.

The serotonin hypothesis of depression has been overplayed in the direct-to-consumer advertising as a way to link the "one pill to one chemical imbalance" idea. There never was much evidence that a deficiency of serotonin underlay depression, or that this deficiency could be fixed with a medication that boosts serotonin. If that were the case, then why don't you get better right away with an antidepressant, since it boosts serotonin right away? The academic psychiatry community never believed this hypothesis, although it never said much about it.

Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer Shannon Brownlee See book keywords and concepts

By the time the FDA had approved the drug for social anxiety, and SmithKline had unleashed its direct-to-consumer ad campaign, which could now link social anxiety to its cure, Paxil, hundreds of stories about the illness had cropped up in U.S. publications and on broadcast programs. Social anxiety was everywhere, in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Town and Country, on The Howard Stern Show and Good Morning America, and huge numbers of Americans were now worrying they might have it.

The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie Craig Pepin-Donat See book keywords and concepts

This type of promotion is commonly called direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising and it is designed to sell drugs by getting people to wonder whether or not a drug is "right for them." Drugs and DTC advertising are a perfect fit for drug companies. But does it make sense for drug companies to have the ability to advertise directly to consumers merely to improve sales, when drugs are not always necessary or effective and have numerous risks?

Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer Shannon Brownlee See book keywords and concepts

Free speech In his book Generation Rx, Greg Critser traces the beginning of direct-to-consumer drug advertising to a couple of young Madison Avenue hotshots named Joe Davis and William Castagnoli. In 198 c, the two were hired by Merrell Dow to advertise its new antihistamine, a drug called Seldane. Mer-rell executives believed that Seldane was a huge advance because it didn't leave hay fever sufferers glazed with drowsiness the way existing drugs did. But Castagnoli and Davis faced three tall barriers to conveying that information to patients.

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.