Can we regulate spending from pharmaceutical manufacturers? Should we?

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Regards,
Shodan

Interestingly enough, he didn’t make an issue out of DTC advertising. He made an issue out of pretty much everything else the industry does with regard to marketing at the expense of R&D:

Hilarious but also sad seventeen minute segment

I thought I’d revive this thread since no less an authority that the American Medical Association agrees with me:

The AMA claims drug advertisements create high demand for the expensive treatments that patients see on TV and online, when alternative low-cost medical solutions may be available and more effective.

The move is one of many new policy changes suggested by the AMA to help make prescription medications more affordable for patients. The group notes that prices on generic and prescription drugs have steadily increased over the years, recently experiencing a 4.7 percent spike in 2015.

The AMA claims the billions of dollars pharmaceutical companies spend on ads every year also fuels increases in drug prices. Right now, the United States and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world to allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs; nearly $4.5 billion is spent on these advertisements in the US, up by 30 percent over the last two years. The AMA says companies ultimately drive up the prices of their drugs in order to offset such extravagant marketing costs.

Wait a minute. Are you saying that advertising a thing often increases the demand for that thing? Holy shit… that could revolutionize marketing!!!

Yeah, that’s why we regulate advertising some products because it shouldn’t be marketed to people who don’t know any better to make informed decisions about those products since we as a society decided that kids shouldn’t smoke or drink.

Which is why every country save for us and New Zealand also prohibits DTC advertising, because they are marketing it to people who cannot make informed decisions on those products since we as a society decided that people shouldn’t take many kinds of medication without a doctor’s permission.

But thanks for your contribution. Erudite as always.