Although the FDA permitted the pharmaceutical industry to advertise in general-interest newspapers and magazines in 1985, the big boom didn't begin until 1997, when the agency eased the rules to allow promotions through television. Evidence demonstrates that all this advertising works. Les Zendle, associate medical director for Kaiser Permanente in Southern California, said advertising drives into doctors' offices many patients who didn't know they needed to be treated for such conditions as diabetes and high cholesterol. Another undertreated group motivated by advertising is the population suffering from depression. Many are embarrassed or afraid to seek help.
Advertising gets consumers talking to physicians and seeking help.
Moreover, when men go to a doctor's office for a Viagra prescription, for example, they will get help with other medical problems they may not have known they had. Doctors commonly find cases of prostate cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure in the physical exam that most doctors require before writing a Viagra prescription. The bad side of advertising is that heavy promotion of particular drugs can distort healthcare spending, crowding out dollars that could be better used for other purposes. He said he worries whether doctors, already hard-pressed to find enough time to spend with patients, will bother spending some of those precious minutes to explain why a drug that has been promoted on television might not be any better than an older, cheaper medication.