The high cost of prescription drugs are contributing to runaway health care costs that strain family budgets and make American businesses less competitive in the world. Aggressive, often misleading drug company marketing is increasingly influencing families’ health decisions. Since the government relaxed direct-to-consumer advertising rules in 1997, the ads have nearly quadrupled to over $4 billion a year. Advertising spending has grown twice as fast as drug companies’ spending on research and development. Meanwhile, prescription prices have risen three times faster thaninflation and doctors sometimes prescribe name-brand drugs despite the availability of equally effective, less expensive generic drugs. [GAO, 2006; KFF, 2007]

John Edwards believes patients should receive the drug that is most appropriate and cost-effective for them, based on the medical science and the recommendations of their doctors. As president, he will stand up to drug companies and get control over our dysfunctional health care system.

· Contributing to Rising Prescription Drug Costs: Prescription drug spending is rising, and researchers attribute at least 12 percent of increased sales to direct-to-consumer advertising. The price of drugs has also skyrocketed, up an average of 8 percent a year since 1994. Brand name prescriptions average $111 today, triple the price of generics. Since the mid-90s, Americans’ prescription use has increased by over 50 percent, to an average of 12 per patient. [KFF 2003, 2007]

· Impact of Heavy Advertising: Top companies spend twice as much on marketing and administration as they do on research and development. It works: every dollar of advertisingincreases prescription sales by $4.20. Doctors report that pressure to prescribe name-brand drugs raises costs, strains doctor-patient relationships, and can lead to unnecessary prescriptions. [Families USA, 2007; KFF, 2003]

· Promoting Ineffective and Even Dangerous Drugs: It is too easy for heavy advertising—not results—to influence treatments. The intestinal drug Zelnorm was less than 10 percent more effective than a sugar pill, but its memorable ad campaign showing writing on women’s bare waists drove 500,000 Americans to buy it. After months of heavy marketing and nearly $1 billion in sales, it was withdrawn for causing heart attacks and strokes. And the controversial COX2 class of pain killers—which includes recalled drugs Bextra and Vioxx—were some of the most heavily promoted drugs in history. [CAP, 2007, NYT, 3/31/07; Boston Globe, 7/31/07; OpenSecrets.org, 2007]

, 7/31/07; OpenSecrets.org, 2007]

Edwards’ Plan to Stop Misleading Drug ADS

John Edwards believes that new drugs should succeed by treating patients well and cost-effectively, not through lobbying and public relations efforts. To improve the quality of care and bring down drug costs, he will:

· Delay New Ads to Put Safety First: Often, serious safety issues appear only after a drug has hit the market. Edwards will institute a two-year delay on consumer advertising of all new drugs, as recommended bythe Institute of Medicine and the American Medical Association. A delay will ensure that well-informed doctors – not high-paid advertising consultants – drive prescriptions in the early phases before Americans know the full effects of new drugs.

· Get Control with Real Oversight of Advertising: Edwards will give the Food and Drug Administration real power to prevent misleading drug ads by requiring the agency’s approval before drug companies can launch major ad campaigns.

· Require “Whole Truth” Disclosures: Edwards will improve drug makers’ disclosures to the public, requiring companies to tell the public the whole truth about side effects and how effective drugs are against placebos and existingalternatives. As a result, drug companies will no longer be able to advertise costly “me-too” drugs without disclosing the existence of less costly alternatives. He will also require drug companies to disclose foreseeable side effects from implants of medical devices, which are not disclosed today.

· Help Doctors Make Decisions Based on Evidence, Not Ads: Edwards will establish a non-profit or public organization – possibly within the Institute of Medicine – to research the best methods of providing care,drawing upon data from Medicare and the Health Care Markets and medical experts from across the nation. The center will perform head-to-head testing of drugs, as well as devices, to see which work best for specific conditions and populations. It will quickly and widely disseminate its unbiased, scientific findings to physicians and patients. In addition, the FDA will require drug companies to conduct head-to-head testing prior to approving new drugs.