HHS Secretary Highlights How Big Pharma’s Marketing Strategies for High-Priced
Brand Name Drugs Impose Huge Costs on Taxpayers
THEY SAID IT! RFK JR CALLS FOR REINING IN BIG PHARMA’S STAGGERING SPENDING ON
DTC ADVERTISING OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
HHS Secretary Highlights How Big Pharma’s Marketing Strategies for High-Priced
Brand Name Drugs Impose Huge Costs on Taxpayers
In case you missed it, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called for reining in Big Pharma’s
direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs during aninterview
<[link removed]> on “Special Report with Bret Baier
” on The Fox News Channel last week. The interview followed meetings between
the secretary and executives for major pharmaceutical companies last week.
“I met with pharmaceutical companies yesterday and had a very frank discussion
with them on ways to limit TV commercials,” Kennedy said. “When you advertise a
pharmaceutical product, it’s the government that is the one most likely going
to pay for that product… you get a tax deduction to put that ad on TV, so that
federal taxpayers are paying for the ad, then they’re paying for the product.”
“We’re the only nation in the world that allows that kind of advertising on
TV,” Kennedy continued. “We’re a complete outlier. There’s one other country
like New Zealand that allows limited [DTC advertising] but nothing like we do.”
Earlier this year, The Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP) released an
analysis
<[link removed]>
that found taxing or prohibiting DTC ads for the ten largest pharmaceutical
companies in the U.S. would result in increased federal tax revenue between
$1.5 and $1.7 billion per year. Read the full analysisHERE
<[link removed]>
.
Additional Key Facts on Big Pharma’s DTC Advertising
Price Hikes and Big Ad Spending Go Hand-in-Hand: For several of the
pharmaceutical industry’s best-selling products, Big Pharma repeatedly hikes
prices while pushing these drugs to consumers via DTC ads. This combination
drives up spending for consumers and the entire health care system. Take
Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer’s blockbuster blood-thinning drug Eliquis, for
example. The brand name drug makers have spent more than$1 billion
<[link removed]>
on direct-to-consumer advertising for the drug since 2013. Meanwhile, the drug
makers have increased the drug’s price by at leastsix percent per year
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for ten years. When Eliquis came to market in 2013, it carried a monthly price
tag of$250
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– but in 2022, the list price for a one-month supply of Eliquis was$529
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, more than double when it came to market.
DTC Advertising Can Lead to the Overutilization of Expensive, Older Meds: As a
2023 Forbescolumn
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highlights, DTC advertising can contribute to “the (over)use of higher-cost
drugs over generics and less expensive alternatives,” which can lead to
increased spending on prescription pharmaceuticals.
One-Third: In fact, one JAMA Network research paper
<[link removed]>
from January 2023 found that advertising spending on drugs considered having
“high therapeutic value” accounts for fewer than one-third of all DTC
pharmaceutical advertisements. As the paper states, “[d]irect-to-consumer
advertising is associated with use of higher-cost drugs over generics and less
expensive alternatives.”
7 out of 10: An October 2021 study
<[link removed]>
from America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) found that seven of 10 of the
largest pharmaceutical companies by revenue spent more on sales and marketing
in 2020 than R&D.
Listen to the full Fox News interview HERE
<[link removed]>.
Read CSRxP’s full report on the taxpayer cost of Big Pharma’s DTC advertising
HERE
<[link removed]>
.
Read more on bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable
HERE <[link removed]>.
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