Drug makers working on U.S. advertising guidelines
Drug makers are developing voluntary guidelines aimed at improving television and other advertisements as part an effort to rebuild public trust, the industry’s top lobbyist said on Monday.
Companies have been criticized for creating television commercials and magazine ads that glorify a drug’s benefits while minimizing the risks of side effects.
“We obviously have room for improvement,” said Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA. The industry “needs to recapture the trust of the American people,” he told reporters.
The organization is developing on a set of advertising principles for companies to voluntarily follow, Tauzin said.
“Risk (and) benefit needs to be carefully and seriously discussed in an ad,” he said. “If we can settle on a set of principles ... we can hopefully settle some of the complaints we have had.”
Tauzin, who left Congress last year and took the helm of the drug industry group in January, said he was working to restore the industry’s reputation. Drug companies have been under attack for high prices and a series of drug safety controversies.
Tauzin’s hiring also generated some criticism. He helped push a Medicare bill through Congress that included provisions favored by drug makers. PhRMA represents more than two dozen of the world’s top pharmaceutical firms.
Tauzin said he took the job in part because medicines saved him from cancer last year and he wants to promote the industry’s work.
While trying to earn goodwill with the public, companies will fight “bad policies” such as a proposed ban on consumer- directed ads for the first five years after approval and importation of cheaper medicines from abroad, Tauzin said.
Tauzin said building a favorable reputation for the pharmaceutical industry “is not going to happen in a year or two. It’s going to happen over the long haul.
“You don’t earn trust in a week ... you can’t buy it with a PR campaign,” he said.
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