According to a study published in JAMA Open Network, more than 70 percent of prescription drugs advertised on television are considered low therapeutic value, meaning they are less effective than drugs already on the market. A possible explanation, according to the study authors, is that drugs with high therapeutic value are recognized and prescribed without advertising, so pharmaceutical companies have a greater incentive to promote drugs with lower value. Harvard researchers looked at 73 advertised drugs on which pharmaceutical companies spent $22.3 billion from 2015 to 2021. Fifty-three of these medicines were considered low therapeutic value, and they had an ad spend of $15.9 billion. The US and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals.
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