• USA Today, Monday, August 10, 2009 11 AM

Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is under siege in Congress from numerous directions. Rep. James Moran, D-Va., cites decency standards. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., doesn't want anything advertised for a period of time after it receives Food and Drug Administration approval. Others congressmen want to disallow the cost of the ads as a business expense for tax purposes.

But experts tell Theresa Howard that the DTC ads will continue because they work, are already regulated and don't add to the cost of health care. "It's not going to go away but it will continue to change," says Andrew Schirmer, managing director of McCann HumanCare.

Specifically, ad analyst John Busbice says a study of the industry's top 25 marketers shows a majority generating as much as $1.40 in operating income for every ad dollar spent. As far as regulation goes, the FDA this year has already issued 28% more "warning letters" to drugmakers for false or misleading ads. Finally, "the ads are firmly rooted in freedom of commercial speech," says John Mack, publisher of Pharma Marketing News.

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