Support Trump’s Directive to Stop Misleading Pharmaceutical to Consumer Ads

I urge you to support President Trump’s September 9th memorandum cracking down on pharmaceutical advertising. The United States stands nearly alone in allowing direct-to-consumer drug advertising. Only New Zealand joins us, while every other developed nation restricts or bans these ads entirely (WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring, 2007). There’s good reason for this isolation. Pharmaceutical companies spent over $5 billion on TV ads alone in 2024, using these campaigns to drive demand for expensive brand-name drugs rather than educating patients about treatment options. Current advertising rules let companies bury side effects in fine print or redirect viewers to websites, creating ads that look more like lifestyle commercials than medical information. A 2015 study found only one-third of social media drug promotions even mentioned potential harms. Meanwhile, physicians report these ads distort their relationships with patients, who arrive requesting specific medications based on incomplete marketing rather than medical need. Trump’s enforcement action targets the 1997 “adequate provision” rule that sparked this advertising boom. By requiring companies to fully disclose side effects in their ads rather than hiding behind referrals, this policy will force honest conversations about drug risks and benefits. Some ads may become four minutes long to include proper safety warnings, making them costly enough to discourage the most egregious marketing. Please publicly support this enforcement effort and consider legislation that would bring American pharmaceutical advertising standards in line with the rest of the developed world. Patients deserve transparent medical information, not marketing disguised as healthcare education.