SUMMARY

People are polite in Washington, DC. They don’t rush and knock you down in the Metro (subway) like people do in NYC. Similarly, FDA staffers and presenters at the recent public hearing on DTC were very polite too. The nice FDA people asked nice questions and the nice presenters, for the most part, didn’t blast the FDA for not doing anything to reign in DTC or for doing too much. Presenters were more or less evenly divided as to whether they supported DTC or were against it.

This article summarizes the main points, both pro and con, made by presenters at this meeting and includes commentary from expert members of the Pharms Marketing Roundtable, which met to discuss the issues raised at this hearing.

Topics covered include:

• Pfizer Research into Risk Communication in DTC
• Five Key Learnings of the Research
• Role of DTC in Motivating Consumers to Seek Medical Help
• Pfizer's Recommendations to FDA
• How Much Risk Information is Enough?
• Disease Awareness Ads
• Use of Celebrities
• Pre-Approval of DTCA by FDA
• AstraZeneca's Risky Proposition
• Power of Images