The Day Pharma Tchotchkes Died
Back in February, 2009, shortly after the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) imposed a voluntary ban on gifts to physicians (aka "tchotchkes"), I predicted that tchotchkes would become nostalgia...
Kybella Double Chin TV Ad: Are the BEFORE & AFTER Photos REALLY Unretouched as...
Perhpas you've seen the recent TV ad ("Ancestors") for Allergan's Kybella, a new drug approved for the treatment of double chins (read "Pfizer May Own Your Penis, But Allergan, Maker of...
Pharma Has Funded Hilary to Tune of Nearly $1 Million This Cycle, But Supports...
According to the latest data from the Federal Election Commission released on Monday, September 12, 2016 (here), Hilary Clinton has received more than $990,000 in funds from the healthcare/pharma industry although...
Do Drug Ads Need to Scare Consumers to Motivate Them?
I was quoted in an AdAge story (see embedded summary at the end of this post) about the recent spate of scary drug ads seen on TV and in print. The...
FDA May Have No Choice But to Allow Direct-to-Consumer Off-Label Drug Promotion
In what's been described as a "surprise move" (here) the FDA recently published a notice that it will hold a 2-day public hearing this November to obtain "input on issues" related...
Are We at the Saturation Point Viz-a-Viz Celebrity Pharma Endorsements?
I read with interest today's email missive from Bob Ehrlich, Chairman of DTC Perspectives. He was talking about the "Dry Eye DTC Battle" between Allergan's Restasis and the new kid on...
Branded as Well As Unbranded Vaccine Ads Are the Scariest!
When STATnews reporter Rebecca Robbins (@rebeccadrobbins) interviewed me about what's behind ominous unbranded "disease awareness" ads, I opined that if you’re a drug maker, “you don’t want to attach a dark...
The Addyi Report Card: Crooked Valeant Fools FDA Again
Click on image for enlarged view or get PDF here.
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me," should be FDA's response to a report card released by...
Now May Be the Time for Pharma to Get Serious About Instagram
Despite the fact that FDA recently cited Duchesnay for a violative Instagram Diclegis ad that featured celebrity Kim Kardashian (read "Kim Kardashian Instagram post draws FDA warning"), Instagram may be the...
Do Desperate Consumers Believe Cancer Drug DTC Ads?
In a recent NYT OpEd piece, Matt Jablow, whose wife died of lung cancer, called the TV ads for BMS's cancer drug Opdivo "utterly misleading and exploitive" and said that if...
