Waxman threat to drug DTC advertising

Representative Henry Waxman (Democrat, California), who recently secured the chairmanship of the US House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee, with oversight over the Department of Health and Human Services (Marketletter December 1), has threatened to allow the Food and Drug Administration to ban direct-to-consumer advertising for branded medicines. In 2007, Rep Waxman supported legislation that would have given officials the power to prohibit television advertising of patent-protected compounds for the first three years on the market.

Speaking at a conference organized by The Prescription Project, a group opposed to pharmaceutical majors and their marketing approach, the HEC Chairman said: "it is in the first few years of a drug's life that drug companies often aggressively market their products and engage in direct-to-consumer advertising. This increases the number of patients exposed to safety risks of new products long before those risks are fully understood."

Reuters reports that the 2007 legislative move failed due to objections that congressional action would be ruled in violation of the US federal constitution. As this is ultimately determined by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and that a change in the constitution would take several years, it seems unlikely that a ban could succeed without a change in the Court's current composition.