Prescription Drugs And The United States And New Zealand

Prescription for Danger Lorraine Yahne ENG 122 Composition II Instructor MacDonald September 15, 2014 Direct to Consumer Advertising There are only two countries that allow advertising of prescription drugs to consumers; the United States and New Zealand. Direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) is what they call the prescription drugs advertisements that are made specifically for the consumer. Pharmaceutical companies survival depends upon a gullible public buying what they are selling, whether you need it or not. Prescription drug advertising is in a different category than toothpaste advertising. Because the consumer s health is at stake, there are different rules and regulations involved. Pharmaceutical companies often do†¦show more content†¦Consumers will be more likely to initiate a conversation with their physician after seeing an advertisement on television, or in a magazine. In a paper titled An Insider s Perspective: Defense of the Pharmaceutical Industry s Marketing Practices, author Kanika Johar (2013) writes, In my experience, the goal of DTCA is to increase market share for the new drug by br inging awareness to a particular disease that the drug treats (p.10). The first part of that sentence is remarkably candid. As an industry insider, Johar admits that increasing market share is the goal of DTCA. While proponents cite education and awareness as reasons to continue DTCA, research consistently shows that consumers are not educated in any meaningful way about drugs and their side effects in a 2 minute commercial or a tiny 4 point font, need a degree in biotechnology to understand, print advertisement (Frosch et al, 2010; Arnold Oakley, 2013). One of the biggest problems with direct to consumer advertising is the dangerous medicalizing of our citizens. Medicalization: To take a normal human condition and turn it into a medical condition that needs to be treated. At issue with opponents of DTCA is the belief that the advertisements gloss over the (sometimes-serious) side effects. These ads portray the message of happy and carefree people whose lives are better because of these drugs. The ubiquitous ads promote these drugs to the exclusion of any natural remedies or simple lifestyle changes