Edwards Would Ban Consumer Drug Ads for 2 Years

Good or bad idea? Would you miss those Viagra ads?

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Add one more health-policy prescription to a presidential campaign that’s been full of health talk. John Edwards yesterday rolled out a plan to impose tighter rules on the direct-to-consumer drug ads that have played an increasingly important role in the drug industry’s marketing arsenal. Under Edwards’s plan, a drug would have to be on the market for two years before it could be pitched directly to consumers. The plan would also require prior FDA approval of “major ad campaigns” and beef up rules about disclosing how well a drug stacks up against a placebo, according to Edwards’s Web site. “You’ve seen these ads. You know who’s paying for them, right? You are,” Edwards said yesterday at a speech in New Hampshire, the AP reported. He added that the ads are “driving up demand for the most expensive and most profitable drugs.” In the 2008 presidential race, the health-care sector has given $6.5 million to Democrats and $4.8 million to Republicans, the New York Times reports.