Advertising brand-name prescription medications directly to patients is a controversial American custom. A study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine may stir new debate about the practice.
In the case of one drug, the study found, an advertising campaign did little to expand the medication's use but brought price increases that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions. Critics and defenders of direct-to-consumer drug advertising agree that the advertising of prescription medications will run up the bill that taxpayers foot to finance Medicare and Medicaid.
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