• Ad Age, Tuesday, January 29, 2008 10:45 AM

The pharmaceutical industry is acknowledging that it has a problem with its $5 billion direct-to-consumer ad business as pressure mounts from Congress, the medical community and consumers. The move follows a difficult two weeks as a study on cholesterol drug Vytorin found that it falls short of all that its marketing promises.

"In a number of states across the country, there is backlash building against [pharmaceutical] sales and marketing," says Ken Johnson, senior vp for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. As a result, Johnson says the industry trade group will examine how its members bring medications to market, but he stops short of calling PhRMA's move a task force or committee.

Cynics wonder if this isn't the same halfhearted path PhRMA traveled in August 2005, when it issued its DTC ad guidelines--a 15-point code of conduct that shied away from mandates on the most serious issues, including a one- or two-year moratorium on advertising drugs newly approved by the FDA.

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