November 21, 2025
TOPLINE
In case you missed it, research recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network analyzed the staggering expansion of Big Pharma’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising across non-traditional mediums like social media, less subject to oversight and regulatory guardrails than traditional media like television and radio. The study found brand name drug makers are increasingly investing in influencer content and digital strategies that look like ordinary personal stories or health tips but function as marketing designed to further push high-priced, blockbuster products.
The study highlights how this playbook allows Big Pharma to sidestep guardrails that apply to television or radio advertising set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These guardrails, designed to protect consumers from misleading claims and arm them with information to best make health care decisions with their doctor, are not being applied to Big Pharma’s algorithm-boosted digital strategies meant to increase sales of high-priced brand name drugs through social media. As a result, millions of Americans are being exposed to Big Pharma’s aggressive marketing tactics without guardrails on claims, disclosures about risks — or even, in some instances, the fact that it’s paid marketing at all. Read more on the research letter from JAMA HERE.
Also, a recent analysis published in The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) highlights the outsized impact brand name prescription drugs approved to treat rare diseases under the Orphan Drug Act have on prescription drug spending — and how exempting certain blockbuster brand name drugs approved to treat rare diseases from solutions to lower prescription drug prices, “substantially limits potential savings for patients and the health care system.”
The analysis discusses a pharma-backed policy passed by Congress earlier this year, The Optimizing Research Progress Hope And New (ORPHAN) Cures Act. Originally, Congress passed this Big Pharma-backed policy without the right information from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on which brand name drugs would be impacted – or its true cost to the American people. A revised estimate from CBO projects the ORPHAN Cures Act will cost $8.8 billion between 2025 and 2034, by exempting blockbuster drugs like Merck’s Keytruda from solutions to lower drug prices. Read more on the AJMC analysis HERE.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“[O]ne glaring problem demands action—patent abuse by large pharmaceutical corporations. The surest way to drive down costs is to clear the path for generics. Yet brand-name companies often deploy patent tactics to block challengers.”
Curtis Hill, Former Attorney General, Indiana
DATA POINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Just 33.4%
Of 740 posts from social media influencers pushing sales of brand name prescription drugs reviewed in a recent research letter published in JAMA Network, 69.1 percent of the posts included claims on efficacy, while “information on risks or adverse effects” appeared in just 247 (33.4%) of the posts.
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
@BLaw: “Opinion: The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice can help drive prescription drug prices down by punishing companies for abusing patents that prevent generic reproductions of drugs.”
@JAMAHealthForum: “Viewpoint: Pharmaceutical companies routinely exploit patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and trademarks to delay competition, sustain high drug prices, and limit patient access to affordable medication. https://ja.ma/3LEcxK1”
ROAD TO RECOVERY
MLex: I-MAK's Tahir Amin Presses US Congress On Effect Of Patents On Drug Prices
Tahir Amin, CEO of the IP advocacy group Initiative for Medicines, Access, and Knowledge, is urging lawmakers to examine how patent practices such as evergreening and thickets drive up drug costs. While critics challenge I-MAK’s data, Amin says transparency and debate are necessary to change patent policy to encourage competition. While the national conversation over prescription drug prices has dominated political campaigns, Tahir Amin says he wants to help lawmakers examine how patent policy impacts these costs.
PBS: What Are Biologics And Can The Trump Administration Make Them Cheaper With Biosimilars?
If you watch TV and don’t mute ads, you’ve probably heard of a few biologics. They’re drugs such as Humira for arthritis and Trulicity for Type 2 diabetes. You may also know they are expensive. Biologics represented 5% of the drugs prescribed in the U.S. in 2024, but they accounted for more than half of the country’s total prescription medicine spending, according to health data analysis company IQVIA. The Trump administration said it hopes to make these medications more affordable partly by increasing access to “biosimilars,” or highly similar products. What are biologics and biosimilars and will the administration’s proposals help drive down their costs?
Bloomberg Law: Opinion: Lower Prescription Prices Come When Patent Abuses Are Punished
The Department of Health and Human Services will soon release a report—delayed only by the government shutdown—outlining steps to cut prescription drug prices. HHS is already in talks with the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to make drugs more affordable by restoring competition. That’s the right fight. But one glaring problem demands action—patent abuse by large pharmaceutical corporations. The surest way to drive down costs is to clear the path for generics. Yet brand-name companies often deploy patent tactics to block challengers.
PHARMA’S POOR PROGNOSIS
Inside Health Policy: JAMA Network Analysis Shines Light On How Big Pharma Pushes Sales Of High-Priced Blockbusters By Targeting Consumers On Social Media
In case you missed it, research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network analyzed the staggering expansion of Big Pharma’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising across non-traditional mediums like social media, less subject to oversight and regulatory guardrails than traditional media like television and radio. The study found brand name drug makers are increasingly investing in influencer content and digital strategies that look like ordinary personal stories or health tips but function as marketing designed to further push high-priced, blockbuster products.
The American Journal Of Managed Care: US Spending On High-Revenue Rare Disease Drugs In 2022
Congress passed the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to invest in treatments for rare conditions. The law provides tax credits to partially offset clinical trial costs for developing drugs to treat rare diseases and 7 years of exclusivity protection from FDA approval of generic competitors. To qualify for these incentives, drug makers were initially required to attest that there was “no reasonable expectation” that a drug could generate a profit, but the designation was subsequently amended to include all drugs treating conditions that affected fewer than 200,000 Americans. During the past several decades, the number of FDA-approved drugs with Orphan Drug Act designations has increased substantially, accounting for 41% of drugs approved by the FDA from 2008 to 2018.
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