Drug Companies Profit from Deceptive Ads

Printer-friendly versionSend by email"Some companies have repeatedly disseminated misleading advertisements for prescription drugs, even after being cited for violations, and millions of people see the deceptive commercials before the government tries to halt them, Congressional investigators said today. The investigators, from the General Accounting Office, said Pfizer, for example, had continued to make misleading claims in advertisements for its cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, despite several letters from the Food and Drug Administration in the last four years. In a new report, the accounting office said that drug company advertising appeared to produce a significant increase in the use of prescription drugs, as well as higher drug spending. The report criticized delays in the enforcement of federal standards for the accuracy of drug advertising and attributed much of the delay to a recent change in procedure by the Bush administration that lengthens the review process."