Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 8A
Opinion
Ask your doctor
about (fill in the
blank)
The following editorial
appeared in the St. Louis Post
Dispatch on Friday, May 16:
Surely you’ve seen the tele¬
vision ads, the ones with attrac¬
tive and carefree people gam¬
boling through fields of flowers
thanks to Miracle Drug X, or
kayaking up a river thanks to
Miracle Cure Y. Life would be
better if only your doctor
would prescribe X and Y,
wouldn’t it?
Maybe not. Weighing the
risks and benefits of a particu¬
lar drug is a serious challenge,
even for the best-trained and
best-informed physicians. For
the rest of us, it can be all but
impossible.
That’s why it takes a pre¬
scription to buy certain medica¬
tions; someone who knows
what he is doing is supposed to
make that decision. It’s also
why, until 1997, pharmaceuti¬
cal companies couldn’t pitch
their advertising directly to the
public.
But these days, drug com¬
panies bombard the public with
billions of dollars in advertis
ing each year, pumping up
demand. Sure, you still have to
get a doctor to write a prescrip¬
tion, but the drug companies
are bombarding them even
more heavily.
It’s time for Congress to
revisit this issue, place com¬
mon sense limits on direct-to
consumer drug advertising and
hike the fines for companies
that violate the law.
Spending on those ads —
though still just a fraction of
what is spent on marketing to
doctors —jumped more than
300 percent between 1997 and
2005. Over the past two years
combined, it topped $10 bil¬
lion.
The ads work. During a
U.S. House hearing this month.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.,
cited one study thift found for
every $ 1 spent on consumer
drug ads, sales increased by $6.
Ten of the 12 most advertised
brand-name drugs had sales of
more than $1 billion last year.
One recent medical study
found that advertising is creat¬
ing markets for drugs that
would otherwise not exist. It’s
one reason that more than half
of all insured Americans are
taking at least one prescription
medication for chronic health
problems.
The number of direct-to
consumer ads more than dou¬
bled between 2(X)3 and 2007.
Among them was a campaign
for the cholesterol drug
Vytorin, a subject of Stupak’s
congressional hearing this
week. That’s the one with those
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about two sources of choles¬
terol.
Ads for the drug, made
jointly by Merck and Schering
Plough, were pulled in January
after release of a study that
showed Vytorin is no more
effective at reducing choles¬
terol buildup than a cheaper
drug called Zocor, which is
available as a generic.
Merck and Schering-Plough
sat on that study for two years,
advertising heavily the whole
time. Last year, after data had
been collected but before it was
released, Vytorin rang up sales
of $5.1 billion.
Incredibly, medical devices
— not just drugs — now are
being advertised directly to
consumers. An article pub¬
lished this week in the highly
respected New England Journal
of Medicine calls for a federal
investigation into television ads
for a drug-coated stent, a
device used to prop open
clogged arteries. The ad details
several potential benefits of the
stent, but only limited informa¬
tion about the risks, or the fact
you have to have surgery.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro,
D-Conn., has sponsored a bill
that would ban consumer
advertising for the first three
years a new drug is on the mar¬
ket. That would give regulators
time to better assess its poten¬
tial risks. The idea is endorsed
by Consumers Union, publish¬
er of Consumer Reports.
A Senate committee was to
hear testimony May 16 on a
proposal to require that all
drug ads list a telephone num¬
ber where consumers can file
reports about drug side-effects,
In theory, the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration
polices drug company advertis
ing. In reality, it’s over
whelmed and understaffed.
The FDA reviews just a frac
tion of consumer drug ads. It
takes action very rarely — usu
ally after an offending ad has
been pulled off the air.
In 2002 the Bush adminis¬
tration issued new rules that
cut the number of so-called
regulatory letters issued to
companies that violate adver¬
tising laws.
Between 1998 and 2001,
the FDA issued 15 to 25 letters
each year. It issued just eight to
11 annually between 2002 and
2005. Four were issued in
2006 and only two last year,
even as the number of drug ads
continued to soar.
The FDA must do a better
job of policing drug ads. But it
won’t until Congress gives it
the tools it needs. Lawmakers
should do so without delay.
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to points
of
In 1998 two Georgia
lawyers dove into frontline
political contests that could
have made them national fig¬
ures. Ten years later...
Former Gov. Roy Barnes is
running a heavy-duty law firm,
building a mansion-sized
house north of Atlanta and
probably wishing he had the
whole governor thing to do
over again.
Former Attorney General
Mike Bowers is also into big
time lawyering, sometimes as
co-counsel with Barnes and
sometimes as his adversary.
Bowers specializes in repre
senting citizens hurt by govern¬
ment corruption. His minions
are spreading the word that
Bowers is considering a re-run
for governor,
A couple of weeks ago we
moaned that the Democratic
and Republican benches are
bereft of suitable governor
material. Johnny Isakson has
said he will not run in 2010, so
woe is us. If not Johnny, then
who? Well, perhaps that candi¬
dates’ bench is not as vacant as
we thought.
Barnes denies unequivocal
ly that he has any interest in an
encore as governor. He says he
had rather continue the good
life away from the pressures of
politics,
Over in Buckhead, Bowers
smiles sheepishly as he denies
interest in a campaign for gov¬
ernor. Maybe he is sincere
when he says no, but he obvi¬
ously enjoys being asked
Bill
Shipp
i i
COLUMNIST
about it.
Barnes, for the first time in
a long time, delivered the tradi¬
tional Confederate Memorial
Day speech at Oakland
Cemetery. In olden days, an
appearance at this event was a
sure sign of revving up to run.
You have to wonder what
Georgia would have been like
if Barnes had won a second
term. Barnes would have been
a big player in national politics.
More than that, Georgia would
not be making the top of every¬
body’s snicker list for worst
traffic, worst schools and worst
health care.
If Barnes had put in a full
eight years as governor,
Georgia might be a far differ¬
ent place. His transportation
plan was already being hailed
as a national model when the
teachers unions and gullible
flaggers ushered him out the
Capitol door in 2002.
Look where we might have
been in transportation improve¬
ments alone if Barnes had
remained:
— More than 220 addi¬
tional miles of HOV lanes with
express bus service would have
been built. Just think how that
might have shrunk your gaso¬
line bill and commute time.
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— Commuter rail con¬
necting Midtown to cities north
and south of Atlanta would be
under construction.
— Shuttle service to con
gested edge communities
would have been up and run¬
ning.
— A new intermodal
transportation terminal serving
as a hub for the region with
passenger rail service would
have been nearly finished.
— Vast improvements to
the Ga. 400 corridor and the
Highway 316 path would
already have been carried out.
— A more dedicated and
less unruly legislature would
have approved special bond
financing with the feds so the
projects could go forward
immediately.
Perdue swept all those
grand plans under the rug as
soon as he captured the Gold
Dome. The biggest headlines
to come from the Department
of Transportation over the past
six years have been picayune
personnel fusses and stories of
hanky-panky involving bosses
and employees.
One result: More work for
Barnes and Bowers, attorneys
at law and hanky-panky spe¬
cialists.
Speaking of hanky-panky,
in 1998 Mike Bowers marched
into a cheering state GOP con¬
vention in Macon as the king
of the Republicans and an
odds-on favorite to succeed
Zell Miller as governor.
Bowers had been a whiz-
bang attorney general. Elected
officials suffered serious cases
of the willies at the mention of
Bowers and his intrepid corps
of corruption investigators.
The public adored the AG,
a ramrod-straight West Point
graduate with an impeccable
public service record.
In the midst of the 1998
campaign, Bowers confessed
to a romantic extramarital
affair with his knockout secre
tary. That was the end of
Bowers’ hope for governor.
Businessman Guy Milner won
the GOP nomination.
Democrat Barnes won the gov
emorship.
By today’s standards,
Bowers’ indiscretion would
rate no more than one or two
mentions on daytime cable TV.
The scandal *and resulting fall¬
out from the Bowers affair
were so 20th century. More siz
zling stuff from Washington
and Hollywood would have
booted Bowers right out of the
news.
In any event, rumor has it
that Barnes and Bowers, two
colorful and visionary politi¬
cians from another era, may
come roaring back to rescue us
from chronic incompetence
and apathy.
For both gentlemen, the
words “not a moment too
soon” come rushing to mind.
You can reach Bill Shipp at
P.O. Box 2520, Kennesaw, GA
30156, e-mail: shippl @bell
south.net, or Web address: bill
shipponline.com.