Direct-to-consumer marketing: The food and drug administration is not alone

摘要

The bright lights of law enforcement have been focused for some time now on the relationship between drug manufacturers and healthcare providers. Slowly but surely, those bright lights are focusing on another target: direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing programs. Manufacturers contend that these programs, which can involve the dissemination of information through pharmacy benefit management companies (PBMs) or pharmacies and which often are styled as "patient education" or "patient compliance" programs, serve a valuable purpose--providing patients with information and encouraging them to talk with their doctors about new or better drugs. Critics of these programs, however, contend that they contribute to rising drug costs by inducing patients to switch to more expensive drugs, and that they improperly invade the privacy of the patients to whom they are directed.