• Ad Age, Friday, April 20, 2007 11:15 AM

A Senate committee has moved a bit closer to letting the Food and Drug Administration ban outright any direct-to-consumer drug advertising for a product's first two years on the market. Democrats on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee beat back a Republican move to strip the ban from a law reauthorizing fees for the review of new drugs. The legislation is apt to get a full floor vote in June but the GOP -- much larger recipients of pharmaceutical industry campaign cash promises a fight.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., the committee's chairman, and Michael Enzi, R-Wyoming. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) wants to drop the ban, but give the FDA new powers to fine advertisers for "false" or "misleading" drug advertising.

Until the Democrats took control of the Senate after the last elections, Roberts was chairman of the Intelligence Committee and an ardent supporter of the Bush Administration's warrantless domestic spying program. He was also one of only nine Senators to vote against an amendment banning the "cruel, inhuman" treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody.

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