An Updated Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Television Advertisements for Prescription Drugs

Janelle Applequist; Jennifer Gerard Ball

doi:10.1370/afm.2220

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A Screenful of Sugar?
Jon Schommer

Published on: 24 May 2018
Time for Congress to act
Dominick L. Frosch

Published on: 16 May 2018

Published on: (24 May 2018)

A Screenful of Sugar?
Jon Schommer, Professor
Applequist and Ball provided an important update to their 2004 data regarding the types of content presented in prescription drug product claim ads.Their reference to Frosch's work (balancing policy with evidence in the regulation of prescription drug advertising) is outstanding and helps frame this important issue. My work with collaborator Lewis Glinert (Dartmouth College) that focuses upon prescription drug advertising...
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Applequist and Ball provided an important update to their 2004 data regarding the types of content presented in prescription drug product claim ads.Their reference to Frosch's work (balancing policy with evidence in the regulation of prescription drug advertising) is outstanding and helps frame this important issue. My work with collaborator Lewis Glinert (Dartmouth College) that focuses upon prescription drug advertising on web sites benefits greatly from the work published by Applequist and Ball. Continued work that evaluates the content, oversight, organization, and language of prescription drug advertising will help frame decisions in this domain.
Competing interests: I am co-author (with Lewis Glinert, Dartmouth College) for a book entitled "A Screenful of Sugar? Prescription Drug Websites Investigated."
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Competing Interests: None declared.
Published on: (16 May 2018)

Time for Congress to act
Dominick L. Frosch, Senior Scientist
Congratulations to Dr. Applequist and Dr. Ball on a well-done and timely study. As a scientist I am proud to see our 2007 methods replicated with a recent sample of ads. As someone interested in more sensible health policy, I am troubled though, sadly, not surprised. In another paper we published on this topic in 2010 we wrote "DTCA amounts to a large and expensive uncontrolled experiment in population health, which to...
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Congratulations to Dr. Applequist and Dr. Ball on a well-done and timely study. As a scientist I am proud to see our 2007 methods replicated with a recent sample of ads. As someone interested in more sensible health policy, I am troubled though, sadly, not surprised. In another paper we published on this topic in 2010 we wrote "DTCA amounts to a large and expensive uncontrolled experiment in population health, which to date shows decidedly mixed effects." The findings by Applequist and Ball don't spur much optimism that this situation has improved. The lack of funding for research on DTCA is one impediment. Lack of access to relevant data is another. Surely, the industry must know much more about the effects of this $6 billion/annually experiment it is funding than the public does. It is time for Congress to ask more probing questions. These new data call for it.
Competing interests: None declared
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Competing Interests: None declared.