LANSING – In a move to increase consumer protection in Michigan and hold drug companies accountable, State Representative Shanelle Jackson (D-Detroit) today unveiled 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.
"Demanding more openness and transparency will allow consumers and doctors to see how and where big drug companies concentrate their spending," Jackson said. "Drug companies spend billions to market their products when they should be using more of that money to make their drugs safer. This plan will help shine a light on the disparity between marketing and research."
The House Democratic 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.
Big drug companies spend more than $21 billion annually on marketing.[1] Merck, maker of now-banned 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]
"Pouring so much money into marketing rather than research can have devastating and deadly consequences for consumers," Jackson said. "House Democrats have been fighting for years to hold drug companies accountable to consumers, and we're continuing that fight today. This plan will increase consumer protection and give residents the information they need to make the right decisions for themselves and their loved ones when it comes to prescriptions medications."