Articles Posted in Product Liability

It’s no secret among people who know me, that, as a Boston Massachusetts product liability lawyer, I’m one of the sharpest critics in the legal community of the pharmaceutical industry, and particularly, pharmaceutical advertising. Yes, I’m fully aware of the societal value that pharmaceutical companies can and do bring to bear, in addressing a number of diseases and medical conditions. And I believe that they are entitled to make a healthy profit in so doing. But what I’ve – and we’ve – all witnessed in the last 10 or 12 years, is the way that pharmaceutical companies pimp their products to the general public through television, radio, and print advertising. It is often obscene, and in my opinion ought to be legislated as illegal. However, there’s a sticky little thing called “commercial free speech”, which delves into an entirely separate subject of First Amendment issues, which I won’t distract my readers with right now. Not that it isn’t very important, but I’ll save that for another day.

Long gone are the days when pharmaceutical company sales reps solely called on – of all things – doctors’ offices – to sell their products. No, they got around that. Their thinking: “Why rely on doctors to write prescriptions for our products, when we can generate demand at the consumer level? Yeah, we’ll flood print and broadcast media with ominous-sounding ads showcasing all kinds of diseases and medical problems, and in the process, get millions of people to march into their doctors’ offices, and demand to be given prescriptions for our products.” This seemed like an even surer bet than taking doctors out to lunches and dinners, and hosting them with everything from golf outings to “professional seminars” at warm, sunny destinations. (Which they still do, but that practice has been gradually dropping, as regulators see more and more how incestuous and unethical a practice it obviously is.)

Take a little test: The next time you’re watching a TV show (ideally during prime time, (8:00-11:00 PM,) keep a pen and paper next to you. Write down the number of advertisements that you see about any kind of drug or health product. Ninety per cent of the time, it’s a pitch from a pharmaceutical company, talking about the horrors of this or that medical condition, and urging you to “Ask your doctor about_______.” Do the same thing the next time you’re reading a newspaper or a magazine. Or listening to the radio (except when driving.) Chances are you’ll realize that the average viewer, reader or listener is inundated, constantly, by drug companies trying to get you to “Ask your doctor” about whether you “might have” some medical problem or condition, and whether their product “might help you.” Not only are ads in newspapers across the country regular fare, but full page ads. Any idea what a full page ad in an average major city daily newspaper goes for, say, Monday through Friday? About $10,000.00 – and more on weekends. Hawking everything from Aspirin to Zithromax, for every condition from high cholesterol to depression to heart disease to smoking, they never cease their constant drumbeat to “Ask your doctor about ______.”