[knieveltech]

You want pharma companies to keep doing drug discovery why not ban outright any kind of marketing or advertising for their products? R&D spend across the industry is a fraction of the marketing spend. Think of all the good research that money would fund once pharma companies were freed from spending it on advertising.

[djhworld]

Whenever I visit the US I find it insane how much advertising for drugs is shown on TV, with the usual "ask your doctor about..." disclaimer at the end.

Why aren't more American's up in arms about this?

[hansthehorse]

Only two countries allow direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising -- New Zealand and the USA.

[QuarterReptile]

Maybe we know how to avoid the ads better?

[propogandist]

doctors told them they were being rebellious & put them on medications

[rightos]

Seems like a reasonable idea to me, has anyone attempted to apply some of the less controversial possible solutions here in the US? Like shorter patent lifetimes or a ban or reduction on drug advertising?

[ajmurmann]

Things definitely have been tried. However, companies find loop holes and frequently things get worse after. Check out this amazing episode of econtalk: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2017/06/robin_feldman_o.htm...