The FDA is getting into the DTC business with an effort to stop teens from smoking. The campaign, starting February 11, is an attempt to stop teens from smoking by discussing the harm it does to things teens care about. While teens probably do not think about lung cancer or heart attacks they do care about their looks.
?Government is getting into the prevention business.? – Bob Ehrlich
The FDA campaign targets teens by explaining that smoking will cause wrinkles and bad teeth. These spots are hard-hitting and very well done. Rather than give the usual long-term warnings that may affect teens 40 years later, the deleterious skin and oral effects happen while they are still young.
Could this mean the beginning of more disease awareness campaigns? Is government getting more involved in doing prevention advertising? While the money for the smoking campaign comes from the tobacco industry settlements, it is possible that other disease prevention ads will be funded by drug companies. It is possible we could see government hit up the drug companies for funding disease prevention campaigns run by FDA.
What if FDA had the authority to charge a DTC fee for airing ads? Maybe they could impose a 2% fee on all advertising media spend. Perhaps they could raise more if they did it on total branded drug sales? Is it going to happen? It seems that if the goal of government is to prevent disease through education and mass screening, both government and drug companies would benefit. Those millions of Americans with undiagnosed diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol need education on the importance of lifestyle changes. Many will fail to do so and then be logical candidates for drug therapy.
Many drug companies will not do disease education unless they have the only drug in a class or have a dominant market share. Government may be the body that can execute a broad campaign by raising funds from all branded drugs. Now I know the drug industry is loathe paying more to government. They already gave $80 billion in Obamacare subsidies. On the other hand, just imagine the impact of another billion dollars in DTC focused on early diagnosis and treatment.
There is no doubt government is getting in the prevention business and drug companies will play a large role in that effort, willingly or unwillingly. The anti-smoking effort is surely going to give FDA more ideas about further disease education. Imagine the campaigns that could be done if government, advocacy groups and drug makers pooled resources.
Comments are closed.