There are few more brazen examples of healthcare practices that put industry profits ahead of patient interests than hawking prescription drugs in cheerful, 60-second TV commercials.
It’s such a surefire recipe for misinformation and manipulation that nearly every developed country forbids the practice. Only the United States and New Zealand say it’s OK.
Yet a new study finds that U.S. authorities take such a lackadaisical approach to so-called direct-to-consumer drug ads that many of the commercials violate federal guidelines and, unsurprisingly, the quality of information presented is alarmingly low.
Written by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
