Overview
The Problem
Deceptive Drug Marketing Endangers Patients
Drug marketers’ main concern is selling drugs, not protecting your health. Sales
are hurt if doctors perceive a drug as dangerous or of limited value.
Thus drug marketers have a strong incentive to present their drugs as
safer or more effective than they really are.
Our report, “Turning Medicine into Snake Oil, How Drug Marketers Put Patients at Risk”
documents the problem in detail. From 2001-2005 the FDA sent 85
different drug companies at least 170 letters to drug marketers telling
them their advertising was false or misleading. Those letters, which we
analyze in the report, are available by clicking here.
Our report found that over 2/3 of the deceptive messages aimed at
doctors misrepresented risks or promoted unproven uses. Because both of
these types of messages distort the risk/benefit analysis, they put our
lives at risk.
Deceptive Drug Marketing Corrupts the Science of Pharmaceutical Medicine
In addition to the FDA letters, our report surveyed the existing
literature to identify deceptive marketing problems that were largely
outside the scope of the FDA letters. One of the most disturbing types
of deceptive marketing that largely escapes FDA notice is the
suppression and misrepresentation of clinical trial data, the
fundamental science that underpins pharmaceutical medicine. In addition
to outright data suppression, drug marketers influence clinical trial
design to ensure the only the “right” questions are asked, and employ
PR firms to write the first drafts of clinical trial reports and
thereby control their spin. The PR firms’ ghostwriting is not
acknowledged in the final reports. By distorting the underlying
scientific data set, drug marketers put our lives at risk. Read our report.
The Solution
Reining
in the drug marketers will require multiple changes to current law. Our
first focus is ending the scientific misconduct of suppressing and
distorting clinical trial data. To end that problem, New Jersey must
create a comprehensive database of clinical trial data for all drugs
sold in New Jersey, called a clinical trial registry and results
database. Bills A2951/S2307, sponsored by Assemblyman Dr. Conaway and
Senator Buono, would do just that. The registry would be hosted on the
internet and would be publicly accessible. Key data about each study,
ranging from its design to its results to the financial relationships
among the researchers and drug marketers, would be included.
Passing these bills would restore the fundamental integrity of the
science of prescription drug medicine. However, eventually more must be
done.
