LANSING – In a move to increase consumer protection in Michigan and hold drug companies accountable, State Representative Gary McDowell (D-Rudyard) today announced a plan that requires drug companies to fully disclose how they spend their marketing money and bans lavish gifts such as extravagant trips and meals to doctors.
"Michigan citizens cannot afford to have the wealthy drug companies putting profits before people and secrecy ahead of safety," said McDowell, a longtime advocate of drug industry reform. "Every year, big drug companies spend billions on marketing and advertising while neglecting the research and development that could make their drugs better and safer. We must stand up to drug companies and the marketing money they're using for the slick ads to sell more drugs and rake in more profits."
The plan would:
- Require companies to report all drug advertising and marketing expenditures, including gifts to doctors and other health care workers.
- Require companies to report research and development expenditures.
- Ban lavish drug company gifts to doctors and limit gifts to $100 worth a year.
- Establish a searchable Web site that details drug companies' marketing expenses and gifts to doctors, which would be maintained by the Department of Community Health.
Wealthy drug companies spend more than $21 billion annually on marketing.[1] Merck, maker of the now-banned painkiller Vioxx, spent more than $160 million on an aggressive advertising campaign in 2000; as a result, sales of Vioxx quadrupled to $1.5 billion.[2] Vioxx may have caused heart attacks or cardiac deaths in up to 139,000 Americans, based on Merck's own studies, before it was pulled from shelves in 2004.[3]
"Drug companies should be spending their money on making safer drugs, instead of sending an army of sales reps to sway doctors about new drugs," McDowell said. "By requiring full disclosure, we can help our citizens and their doctors make the right choices, and reduce the risks from dangerous drugs."