PowerPoint: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals

Is Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals Bad For Our health?

Please produce a PowerPoint presentation including the following:

PRO Advertising Prescription Drugs
1. Prescription drug advertisements inform consumers about potential medical conditions they may have and about drugs that could help treat those conditions. A consumer better informed about medical issues is more likely to contact his/her doctor to discuss the condition or related drugs. These ads therefore provide a helpful public health service.
2. Just because someone sees an ad on television doesn't mean he/she will rush out to take a drug. Prescription drug consumers have access to physicians, pharmacists, product packaging, internet websites, medical literature and more to educate them about prescription products.
3. Prescription drug advertisements lessen the stigma associated with many health conditions and thus make it easier for patients to acknowledge their potential health issues and reveal and discuss their health problems with physicians and others.
4. Direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs is important and profitable for drug makers. They make over $4.00 for every $1.00 spent in direct to consumer advertising of such drugs. Drug makers, like any other legal company, have every right to make profits.
5. Without the profits drug companies make from advertising prescription drugs to consumers, those companies would have less money to develop life-saving and life-improving medications.
6. Brand name drug makers invest substantial amounts of money to research, test, acquire FDA approval, manufacture, and develop a market for specific prescription drugs. Generic drug competitors have none of those research and development (R&D) expenses. Advertising prescription drugs is necessary for brand name drug makers to recoup their R&D expenses and remain competitive against generic drug companies.
7. Prescription drug advertisements are already regulated by the FDA to ensure that they are not false or misleading. Additional regulation is not necessary.
8. Advertising is a form of speech, and it should be protected under the First Amendment. Any law prohibiting the advertisement of prescription drugs directly to consumers would violate the US constitution.
9. Advertising prescription drugs uses ad agencies, video/photography equipment, graphic designers, public relations firms, copy editors, and a host of other professional services and equipment makers. Therefore, having such ads keeps people employed and helps the overall economy.
10. Doctors, hospitals, and health care insurance providers can advertise their services directly to consumers. Fairness dictates that drug companies should be able to advertise their products directly to consumers as well.

response is a 12-slide presentation, two references