Are Prescription Drug Ads Helpful to Patients?

The post discusses the prevalence of direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription medications in the U.S., highlighting both its benefits and drawbacks. While ads raise awareness and encourage patients to seek care, they often promote expensive drugs lacking significant advantages over cheaper alternatives. A report from KFF Health is shared.

Repatha. Breztri. Caplyta.Vyvgart. Hytrulo. Eylea HD.Izervay. Entyvio.

Does it look like I’m writing in a language other than English? Are these the names of rock bands you’ve never heard of? Or characters in a video game featuring superheroes and villains?

These are the brand names of prescription drugs that I saw advertised in just one evening of television. And they are not all of the ones aired. Added to these are ads for OTC meds, vitamins, supplements, and other health care products.

When I was practicing medicine, occasionally a patient would ask for a specific drug they heard about from a friend, read about, or saw on television. Usually it was a drug that did not require close surveillance, like a seasonal allergy or heartburn medication.

Instead, all of these drugs treat serious conditions, including several cancers, inflammatory bowel disease, heart disease, schizophrenia, myasthenia gravis, and macular degeneration, conditions for which regular medical surveillance is key to treatment.

One of them caught my attention because my husband receives it. It is an injection that his physician administers in the office every 1-2 months. The physician’s office orders it and bills our insurance for the cost. It is delivered directly to the physician’s office. So, I wonder why it’s marketed to patients?

You may not remember that at one time, in the United States, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs was not done, although was not specifically banned. Starting in the late 1990s, prescription drug ads began appearing in magazines and then on television.

Direct-to-consumer or DTC, marketing of presciption drugs has its proponents and its critics. So I am sharing with you this article from KFF that presents both sides.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Should Drug Companies Be Advertising to Consumers?

By Paula Span February 20, 2026

Tamar Abrams had a lousy couple of years in 2022 and 2023. Both her parents died; a relationship ended; she retired from communications consulting. She moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Warren, Rhode Island, where she knew all of two people.

“I was kind of a mess,” recalled Abrams, 69. Trying to cope, “I was eating myself into oblivion.” As her weight hit 270 pounds and her blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose levels climbed, “I knew I was in trouble health-wise.”

blood pressure cuff, pill holder with medication
High blood pressure is often treated with medications.

What came to mind? “Oh, oh, oh, Ozempic!” — the tuneful ditty from television commercials that promoted the GLP-1 medication for diabetes. The ads also pointed out that patients who took it lost weight.

Abrams remembered the commercials as “joyful” and sometimes found herself humming the jingle. They depicted Ozempic-takers cooking omelets, repairing bikes, playing pickleball — “doing everyday activities, but with verve,” she said. “These people were enjoying the hell out of life.”

So, just as such ads often urge, even though she had never been diagnosed with diabetes, she asked her doctor if Ozempic was right for her.

Small wonder Abrams recalled those ads. Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic, spent an estimated $180 million in direct-to-consumer advertising in 2022 and $189 million in 2023, according to MediaRadar, which monitors advertising.

By last year, the sum — including radio and TV commercials, billboards, and print and digital ads — had reached an estimated $201 million, and total spending on direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs topped $9 billion, by MediaRadar’s calculations.

Novo Nordisk declined to address those numbers.

Should it be legal to market drugs directly to potential patients?

This controversy, which has simmered for decades, has begun receiving renewed attention from both the Trump administration and legislators.

The question has particular relevance for older adults, who contend with more medical problems than younger people and are more apt to take prescription drugs.

“Part of aging is developing health conditions and becoming a target of drug advertising,” said Steven Woloshin, who studies health communication and decision-making at the Dartmouth Institute.

The debate over direct-to-consumer ads dates to 1997, when the FDA loosened restrictions and allowed prescription drug ads on television as long as they included a rapid-fire summary of major risks and provided a source for further information.

“That really opened the door,” said Abby Alpert, a health economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The introduction of Medicare Part D, in 2006, brought “a huge expansion in prescription drug coverage and, as a result, a big increase in pharmaceutical advertising,” Alpert added. A study she co-wrote in 2023 found that pharmaceutical ads were much more prevalent in areas with a high proportion of residents 65 and older.

Do prescription ads benefit patients?

Industry and academic research have shown that ads influence prescription rates. Patients are more apt to make appointments and request drugs, either by brand name or by category, and doctors often comply. Multiple follow-up visits may ensue.

But does that benefit consumers? Most developed countries take a hard pass. Only New Zealand and, despite the decade-long opposition of the American Medical Association, the United States allow direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

Public health advocates argue that such ads encourage the use and overuse of expensive new medications, even when existing, cheaper drugs work as effectively. (Drug companies don’t bother advertising once patents expire and generic drugs become available.)

In a 2023 study in JAMA Network Open, for instance, researchers analyzed the “therapeutic value” of the drugs most advertised on television, based on the assessments of independent European and Canadian organizations that negotiate prices for approved drugs.

Nearly three-quarters of the top-advertised medications didn’t perform markedly better than older ones, the analysis found.

“Often, really good drugs sell themselves,” said Aaron Kesselheim, senior author of the study and director of the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law at Harvard University.

“Drugs without added therapeutic value need to be pushed, and that’s what direct-to-consumer advertising does,” he said.

Source:FDA Flickr album

Prescription drug ads-pros vs cons

Opponents of a ban on such advertising say it benefits consumers.

“It provides information and education to patients, makes them aware of available treatments and leads them to seek care,” Alpert said. That is “especially important for underdiagnosed conditions,” like depression.

Moreover, she wrote in a recent JAMA Health Forum commentary, direct-to-consumer ads lead to increased use not only of brand-name drugs but also of non-advertised substitutes, including generics.

The Trump administration entered this debate last September, with a presidential memorandum calling for a return to the pre-1997 policy severely restricting direct-to-consumer drug advertising.

That position has repeatedly been urged by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has charged that “pharmaceutical ads hooked this country on prescription drugs.”

At the same time, the FDA said it was issuing 100 cease-and-desist orders about deceptive drug ads and sending “thousands” of warnings to pharmaceutical companies to remove misleading ads. Marty Makary, the FDA commissioner, blasted drug ads in an essay in The New York Times.

“There’s a lot of chatter,” Woloshin said of those actions. “I don’t know that we’ll see anything concrete.”

This month, however, the FDA notified Novo Nordisk that the agency had found its TV spot for a new oral version of Wegovy false and misleading. Novo Nordisk said in an email that it was “in the process of responding to the FDA” to address the concerns.

Meanwhile, Democratic and independent senators who rarely align with the Trump administration also have introduced legislation to ban or limit direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads.

Last February, independent Sen. Angus King of Maine and two other sponsors introduced a bill prohibiting direct-to-consumer ads for the first three years after a drug gains FDA approval.

King said in an email that the act would better inform consumers “by making sure newly approved drugs aren’t allowed to immediately flood the market with ads before we fully understand their impact on the general public.”

Then, in June, he and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont proposed legislation to ban such ads entirely. That might prove difficult, Woloshin said, given the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling protecting corporate speech.

Advertising or Education?

Moreover, direct-to-consumer ads represent only part of the industry’s promotional efforts. Pharmaceutical firms actually spend more money advertising to doctors than to consumers.

Although television still accounts for most consumer spending, because it’s expensive, Kesselheim pointed to “the mostly unregulated expansion of direct-to-consumer ads onto the web” as a particular concern. Drug sales themselves are bypassing doctors’ practices by moving online.

Woloshin said that “disease awareness campaigns” — for everything from shingles to restless legs — don’t mention any particular drug but are “often marketing dressed up as education.”

He advocates more effective educational campaigns, he said, “to help consumers become more savvy and skeptical and able to recognize reliable versus unreliable information.”

For example, Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz, a late colleague, designed and tested a simple “drug facts box,” similar to the nutritional labeling on packaged foods, that summarizes and quantifies the benefits and harms of medications.

For now, consumers have to try to educate themselves about the drugs they see ballyhooed on TV.

people in a gym exercising
photo courtesy Amanda Mills, CDC.gov, Public Health Image Library

Abrams read a lot about Ozempic. Her doctor agreed that trying it made sense.

Abrams was referred to an endocrinologist, who decided that her blood glucose was high enough to warrant treatment. Three years later and 90 pounds lighter, she feels able to scramble after her 2-year-old grandson, enjoys Zumba classes, and no longer needs blood pressure or cholesterol drugs.

So Abrams is unsure, she said, how to feel about a possible ban on direct-to-consumer drug ads.

“If I hadn’t asked my new doctor about it, would she have suggested Ozempic?” Abrams wondered. “Or would I still weigh 270 pounds?”

The New Old Age is produced through a partnership with The New York Times.

KFF’s website content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license that allows for the sharing of their content with attribution.

This information is current as of the date of original publication or update. It may have changed by the time you read this. I invite you to fact-check what you read here.

Please do not use this information for diagnosis or treatment purposes. Before making health decisions, discuss with your physician or other qualified healthcare provider.

Review and Reflect

One person quoted in this article suggests that “more effective educational campaigns can help consumers become more savvy and skeptical and able to recognize reliable versus unreliable information.”

When you see health and medical information online, on television, or in print, are you quick to believe or skeptical?

How do you distinguish between reliable and unreliable information?

Have you ever made a healthcare decision you regret? If so, what will you do differently next time?

Where or from whom will you seek information for your next personal health decision?

Images

The images used in this post are for illustration and are not from the KFF article.

Exploring the HEART of Health

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Use this search box for related posts on this blog or other topics of interest to you.

Dr. Aletha

How New Pain Drugs May Prevention Addiction

I’m glad to learn that states are mandating insurance coverage for non-opioid pain medications. Advocates push for laws that eliminate higher copayments for non-opioids. Despite challenges, bipartisan support is growing, driven by healthcare concerns regarding opioid dependence and addiction.

This information is current as of the date of original publication or update. It may have changed by the time you read this. I invite you to fact-check what you read here.

Please do not use this information for diagnosis or treatment purposes. Before making health decisions, discuss with your physician or other qualified healthcare provider.

Pain Treatment: A Problem for Doctors and Patients

When I was practicing medicine, pain was one of the most difficult problems to manage. I had to balance the need to relieve a person’s pain while not creating dependence or addiction.

Sometimes patients came to me already on chronic opioids for pain. I had to decide whether to continue them or change the person to another treatment, which can be hard to do. Sometimes patients came to me requesting “something” for pain. Only by checking the state pharmacy database did I learn they were already receiving prescriptions for opiates from other physicians, sometimes several.

In my long medical career, there have been few non opiate alternatives for severe pain. So I am pleased to learn of a new drug which is exactly that. Unfortunately, its use may be limited due to cost. This article explains how states are trying to circumvent that problem.

(For the purpose of this article, consider the terms narcotic, opiate, and opioid as referring to the same type of drug.)

More states are requiring insurers to cover non-opioid pain meds

by Nada Hassanein, Oklahoma Voice
February 16, 2026

(edited for readability and clarity, no change to content)

More states are requiring their Medicaid programs and health insurance companies to cover non-opioid pain medications as an alternative to opioids, which can be cheaper for insurers but also more addictive for patients.

Advocates, providers, medical associations, and state lawmakers are pushing for parity in coverage. That means prohibiting insurers from charging higher copayments for non-opioids than they do for opioids, and barring them from requiring prior authorization or step therapy — mandating that patients try other medications first — before they will cover non-opioid drugs.

At least eight states have enacted such laws: Arkansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Tennessee. In states that are still considering legislation, the efforts have been bipartisan, pushed by lawmakers in some Democratic-controlled states, Colorado and New York, and some Republican-leaning states, Kentucky and Missouri.

The issue has gained momentum in recent years, as leading medical associations such as the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine have urged providers not to prescribe opioids as the first-line treatment for pain.

Meanwhile, bipartisan legislation introduced in Congress last year aims to increase Medicaid Part D enrollees’ access to non-opioid pain medications. It’s been referred to a committee.

Dr. Patrick Giam, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, said the organization “believes it is important that insurance plans make non-opioid therapies as accessible to patients as opioid-based therapies.”

drugs to treat pain

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has encouraged non-opioid pain relief alternatives.

Non-opioid pain medications include

  • prescription-strength non-steroid anti-inflammatory NSAIDs such as naproxen and ibuprofen,
  • nerve-blocking injections,
  • certain antidepressants,
  • anticonvulsant medications,
  • acetaminophen , such as Tylenol and other brands, and
  • other medications.

(affiliate links)

Opioids include

  • oxycodone,
  • codeine,
  • morphine and
  • fentanyl.

suzetrigine-Journavx

Last year, the agency approved a new drug called suzetrigine, under the brand name Journavx, the first non-opioid pain relief medication in a new class of analgesic drugs. The drug, which is available in tablets, can be prescribed for acute pain after surgery or injury. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer, is one of the funders of Voices for Non-Opioid Choices, which has been lobbying for the bills.

In Missouri, where GOP-sponsored legislation would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage of a prescribed non-opioid or requiring a higher copayment for a non-opioid, the Missouri Insurance Coalition has argued that the measure would increase health care costs and effectively create “a monopoly” for Journavx. Each tablet can cost around $15 per tablet out-of-pocket. But lawmakers pointed to non-opioid alternatives.

Why non-opioids often cost more

Newer non-opioid drugs entering the market are more expensive than opioids because there isn’t yet a generic alternative, explained Sterling Elliott, an Illinois clinical pharmacist and lecturer at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a board member of Voices for Non-Opioid Choices.

Generic opioids are amongst the cheapest medications that you’ll find flowing through the American pharmaceutical supply,

Sterling Elliott, clinical pharmacist

“The price is so high for a lot of things because the price for generic opioids is so low. Generic opioids are amongst the cheapest medications that you’ll find flowing through the American pharmaceutical supply,” Elliott said. “When you get a new entrant into the pain market, the marketplace factors are set up to drive the price up.”

Elliott added that some insurance plans don’t cover prescription-strength NSAIDs such as ibuprofen because they’d rather people pay out-of-pocket for lower strength, over-the-counter versions of those drugs.

In New York, Democratic Assembly member Phil Steck, the cosponsor of a bipartisan bill that hasn’t received a hearing, said challenging the insurance companies isn’t easy.

“You’re trying to tell insurers what to do,” Steck said. “Those are usually difficult undertakings. … Our experience is that the [legislature’s] insurance committee is very difficult to deal with, and so it hasn’t been pursued as much as we would like.”

Coverage of non-opioids can vary widely across insurance plans, explained clinical pharmacist Emma Murter, who co-chairs the advocacy committee of the Society of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacists.

“There are so many [non-opioid] medications that can be used for chronic pain,” Murter said. “It isn’t gut-instinct obvious, what is and isn’t covered. It’s very Wild West, chaotic.”

When it comes to filling prescriptions, Murter said, she often has to “fight and appeal for some of these non-opioid therapies” with insurance companies.

Dima Qato, associate professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California, said non-opioid pain prescription meds are less common on insurance companies’ “preferred” drug lists. Because insurers may favor the less expensive opioids, that can result in higher copayments or consumers paying more out-of-pocket.

That was the case for Chris Fox, the Washington lobbyist who serves as executive director of Voices for Non-Opioid Choices. Fox has traveled to state capitals around the country to lobby for the bills. Recently, he had a personal experience with pain medications following oral surgery.

“For everything but the non-opioid, my out-of-pocket expectation was $0,” he said. He was charged $30 out-of-pocket for the non-opioid.

His oral surgeon wasn’t familiar with the availability of the new first-in-class non-opioid suzetrigine, Fox added. When he asked the doctor for a prescription for it, the surgeon wrote it but also prescribed an opioid along with an antibiotic.

“He prescribed me hydrocodone to go along with it, just in case, because he wasn’t as familiar with [suzetrigine],” Fox said.

Preventing addiction

As he spoke with Stateline by phone, Fox was driving to the local sheriff’s office to drop off the hydrocodone, which he didn’t take following his surgery.

“We’ve neglected the opportunity, I would say, to prevent opioid addiction where we can, which is in those patients that will develop a newly persistent opioid use pattern following exposure to an opioid that they get for medical reason,” Fox said.

Although opioid overdose deaths have declined, the drugs still kill about 200 Americans a day.

Health care professionals at hospitals also run into issues with lower reimbursement rates for some non-opioids.

Dr. Joseph Smith, an anesthesiologist at a Virginia surgical center who has practiced for three decades, pointed to a nerve-block pain pump as an example. Administering a brand-name version of the drug could cost up to $400 for all the equipment, he said. Smith, like Elliott, sits on the board of Voices for Non-Opioid Choices.

“So the hospital is like, ‘Well, I can spend $400 or I can spend 25 cents on a narcotic pill,’” Smith said.

Smith treats many young teen athletes with sports injuries. Research has shown post-surgery narcotic use can increase risk of addiction.

“My goal when I get a 14-year-old or 15-year-old in here is to never have them try a narcotic, never have them exposed to narcotics,” he said.

Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org.

This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Oklahoma Voice, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

It is shared here under a Creative Commons License.

Tolerance vs. Dependence vs. Addiction

Long-term use of prescription opioids, even as prescribed by a doctor, can cause some people to develop a tolerance, which means that they need higher and/or more frequent doses of the drug to get the desired effects.

Drug dependence occurs with repeated use, causing the neurons to adapt so they only function normally in the presence of the drug. The absence of the drug causes several physiological reactions, ranging from mild in the case of caffeine, to potentially life threatening, such as with heroin. Some chronic pain patients are dependent on opioids and require medical support to stop taking the drug.

Drug addiction is a chronic disease characterized by compulsive, or uncontrollable, drug seeking and use despite harmful consequences and long-lasting changes in the brain. The changes can result in harmful behaviors by those who misuse drugs, whether prescription or illicit drugs.

Source:

NIDA. Prescription Opioids DrugFacts. National Institute on Drug Abuse website. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/prescription-opioids. June 1, 2021 Accessed February 19, 2026.

Images in this Post

The infographics in this post were created by the NIH, National Institutes of Health, and used with permission.

The cover photo is by Towfiqu Barbhuiya and used courtesy of Pexels.com.

Get Help with Substance Use at FindTreatment.gov

While the initial choice to use a drug is often voluntary, the powerful effects of addiction makes it very hard to stop, even if someone wants to.

When drugs or alcohol are used so often that they have significant negative effects on your life, this is called a substance use disorder.

It causes intense cravings for alcohol or drugs, and can include:

  • Using illegal drugs like heroin or cocaine, or excessive alcohol drinking.
  • Using prescription drugs in ways other than prescribed, or using someone else’s prescription.

Using drugs repeatedly changes the brain, including the parts that help exert self-control. That’s why someone may not be able to stop using drugs, even if they know the drug is causing harm, or want to stop.

FindTreatment.gov lists facilities across the country. It gives guidance on what to expect from treatment,  different kinds of treatment, and how to pay for treatment.

If you live outside the United States, contact your local source of medical care or search online for substance use treatment in your country.

Exploring the HEART of Health

I’d love for you to follow this blog. I share information and inspiration to help you transform challenges into opportunities for learning and growth.

Add your name to the subscribe box to be notified of new posts by email. Click the link to read the post and browse other content. It’s that simple. No spam.

I enjoy seeing who is new to Watercress Words. When you subscribe, I will visit your blog or website. Thanks and see you next time.

Search this blog for related posts on this topic or other issues you care about.

Dr. Aletha