The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is in charge of overseeing drug advertisements. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that the FDA actually allowed drug information to be given to the public, rather than just to doctors, patients, pharmacists, and medical professionals.
Today I'll be talking about product claim ads, which in the pharmacy industry are ads that name a drug and discuss the benefits and risks.
In 2007 there was a law passed about print drug ads. It stated that advertisements for prescription drugs in magazines, newspapers, etc had to include the following statement on them:
Under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, print advertisements need to include the following statement: "You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit MedWatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088."
-FDA Website
That statement, in print ads, meets a requirement called adequate provision. But TV and radio ads do not have to put the same statement on them.
These are the requirements for Broadcast (TV and radio) product claim drug ads:
Drug companies do not have to include all of a drug's risk information in a broadcast ad. Instead, the ad may tell where viewers or listeners can find more information [about the drug]. For broadcast ads, we have said that including a variety of sources of prescribing information fulfills [the adequate provision] requirement.
We have suggested that broadcast ads give the following sources for finding a drug's prescribing information:
A healthcare provider (for example, a doctor)
A toll-free telephone number
The current issue of a magazine that contains a print ad
A website address
-FDA Website
Basically what that means is, drug companies don't have to put all the risks in a TV ad. They don't have to tell you to report negative side effects to the FDA when they broadcast ads. All they have to do is say "read more in this magazine", "ask a doctor for more info", "read more online", or "call this number.
The problem with this is that it's misleading and makes patients (and the general public) believe that they need drugs which won't necessarily be right for them, and eliminates the health risks in these drugs.
Even alcohol ads say "please drink responsibly". And though it's true that these are prescription drugs, which you need a prescription to buy. To me, however, it still seems unethical.
For the full information on Product Claim advertisements for Prescription Drugs, you can visit the FDA website's section on the topic. It was used as a source for this post.