US companies adopt new policies on DTCA

Advertising Age reports that, under pressure from a US House of Representatives committee, three US companies have agreed not to advertise new medicines to consumers for the first six months. This is to allow time for physicians to get acquainted with the drugs first. The companies have also committed themselves to changing the way that doctors, or actors pretending to be doctors, are used in the ads.

The companies involved include Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.

Pfizer had already stopped using artificial heart creator Dr. Robert Jarvik to push Lipitor after some members of Congress challenged the appropriateness of Jarvik as a spokesperson for the drug.

The companies haven't acceded to all the committee's requests which included a two year moratorium on the advertising of new products and the inclusion of black box warnings on ads if the Food and Drug Administration requested them.