U.S. lawmakers call on drug companies to curb ads

Two senior Democratic lawmakers called on several drug companies on Tuesday to voluntarily adopt a two-year moratorium on consumer-oriented advertisements for new prescription drugs.

In a letter to the chief executives of Merck & Co Inc, Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough Corp, U.S. Representatives John Dingell and Bart Stupak asked the companies to also refrain from advertising products to consumers until certain studies are completed showing how well the drugs work.

The Michigan Democrats are investigating whether companies are misleading potential patients through television commercials and other direct-to-consumer advertisements with fast talking and flashy graphics.

“To date, we have not received adequate assurances that the leading pharmaceutical companies share our commitment to providing consumers with accurate information about drug therapies,” Dingell, head of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

Dingell and Stupak also asked the companies to include information for patients to report serious side effects to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and to refrain from marketing products for non-approved uses.

The letters come less than two weeks after the committee’s health panel questioned lower-ranking executives from the drugmakers about aggressive marketing tactics for two cholesterol drugs—Pfizer’s Lipitor and Merck and Schering-Plough’s joint venture Vytorin.

The committee also probed ads for Johnson & Johnson’s anemia drug Procrit.

Experts, including the Institute of Medicine and the American Medical Association, have called for limits to drug advertisements.

Officials have said the FDA, which is supposed to review all television commercials, magazine advertisements and other marketing materials, cannot keep up with the industry’s widespread promotions.

Kassy McGourty, spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson’s OrthoBiotech unit, which makes Procrit, said the company received the letter and would cooperate with the committee.

Merck and Schering-Plough’s spokesman for Vytorin venture, Skip Irvine, said the company planned to respond to the lawmakers in writing.

In a statement, Pfizer said it was reviewing the letter. The company, which has been under fire for its use of heart specialist Robert Jarvik in its Lipitor ads, said it was seeking to clarify celebrity endorsements of presciption drugs.

At the hearing earlier this month, Stupak called on the drugmakers to rein in their campaigns or face tighter restriction and possibly an advertisement ban. Company officials testified they generally followed industry guidelines adopted by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) in 2006.

But in a separate letter sent to PhRMA on Tuesday, Stupak and Dingell said those recommendations may not do enough to prevent deceptive marketing practices. The lawmakers asked the industry group to update its guidelines and to endorse the two-year restriction and other curbs.

In a statement, PhRMA said it welcomed feedback on advertising practices and defended consumer ads as a way to educate patients.