The Obama FDA has taken on the giant pharmaceutical companies concerning deceptive internet advertising of their drugs. They notified 14 drug companies that internet ads must contain adequate and accurate warnings of potential risks or be removed from the company’s website. Current internet ads do not contain the most frequently occurring and serious risks associated with the drugs and may tend to mislead by suggesting the drugs are safer than can be demonstrated.
The new FDA is taking the approach that data about a drug’s safety and potential side effects is vital information the public needs in order to be able to make informed decisions. And where the public gets that information from, internet or otherwise, should not make a difference in complying with the FDA’s regulations.
We applaud the new FDA’s get tough policy in dealing with misleading advertising by drug manufacturers. The Bush administration FDA was lax on enforcement of existing regulations and allowed too-cozy relationships between FDA staff and the drug companies they were supposed to police. President Obama vowed to make strong FDA regulation a priority of his administration and this action indicates he intends to do just that.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
