It's Time to Shine the Light on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

Abstract Pharmaceutical marketing is undergoing a transition as the business, delivery, and consumption of health care have increasingly become part of a growing digital landscape. Changes in pharmaceutical promotion also coincide with federal “sunshine” regulations newly implemented under the Affor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of family medicine 2015, Vol.13 (1), p.82-85
Main Authors: Mackey, Tim K., MAS, PhD, Liang, Bryan A., PhD, MD, JD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advertising as Topic - legislation & jurisprudence
Conflict of Interest
Disclosure
Drug Industry
Health Policy
Humans
Internal Medicine
Marketing of Health Services - legislation & jurisprudence
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Physicians
Reflections
United States
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Summary:Abstract Pharmaceutical marketing is undergoing a transition as the business, delivery, and consumption of health care have increasingly become part of a growing digital landscape. Changes in pharmaceutical promotion also coincide with federal “sunshine” regulations newly implemented under the Affordable Care Act that require disclosure of certain marketing and industry payments to physicians. Collectively, these trends could lead to fundamental shifts in physician-directed and direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) that have yet to be adequately identified or explored. In response, we advocate for greater DTCA transparency, especially in the emerging digital forms of DTCA, to complement forthcoming sunshine transparency data. This will allow more robust study and understanding of changes in overall pharmaceutical marketing trends and their impact on health care consumption and behavior. This can also lead to more targeted state and federal policy interventions leveraging existing federal transparency regulations to ensure appropriate marketing, sales, and consumption of pharmaceutical products.
ISSN:1544-1709
1544-1717
DOI:10.1370/afm.1711