• Ad Age, Tuesday, June 17, 2008 10:30 AM

Major pharmaceutical firms including Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are agreeing to a six-month moratorium on advertising new drugs to consumers. The companies also will start following the American Medical Association's guidelines about using actors to portray doctors, and at least one marketer -- J&J -- says it will not use doctors in ads to discuss the benefits of a drug.

The drug makers outlined their intentions in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Committee chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who heads its oversight and investigations panel, had wanted the companies to impose a two-year voluntary moratorium on advertising of new prescription drugs to consumers -- and possibly even longer in the case of drugs for which not all studies have been completed.

The drug companies say that the six-month moratorium formalizes industry practice, which is to educate doctors before moving to consumer communications. Dingell and Stupak say they are pleased with the response, but want the drug companies to go further.

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