Reps. ask drug makers to limit DTC ads

WASHINGTON Democratic House Reps. Bart Stupak and John Dingell of Michigan have written a letter to chief executives at Merck, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Schering-Plough to voluntarily limit direct-to-consumer advertisements, including withholding any ads for new products for two years until certain studies are completed, according to Reuters.

The representatives are investigating whether companies are misleading potential patients through television commercials and other direct-to-consumer advertisements.

“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 House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday.

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

At the hearing, Stupak called on the companies to rein in their campaigns or face tighter restriction and possibly an advertisement ban.

Kassy McGourty, spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson’s OrthoBiotech unit, which makes Procrit, said the company received the letter and would cooperate with the committee. The other three companies have yet to comment on the letter.