One of the most tiresome clichés in health care policy is the one that asserts that drug companies can mesmerize patients and doctors into using ineffective pharmaceuticals simply by way of an advertising campaign.
That claim was just made in the editorial pages of JAMA Internal Medicine and promptly spread via social media. The editorial purports that Allergan has managed to make vast sums of money in sales of Restasis, a dry eye treatment, even though the medication is demonstrably ineffective.
Anish and I examine the claim and find it seriously wanting. Here are the time stamps and the video (total watch time ~ 20 minutes):
- A tweet catches Michel’s attention 0’30”
- Anish summarizes the paper 1’30”
- How do we know the drug “doesn’t work?” 4’20”
- Anish presents his own market research…surprise, surprise, it’s Fake News! 9’05”
- The “pharmascolds” are ideologues with no credibility 13’20”
- Michel’s personal experience with dry eyes 16’04”
Restasis had GREAT TV commercials. I still remember them.
If you guys have not seen these commercials, you are OBVIOUSLY not TV watchers!
Patients request drugs they see on TV and physicians find it challenging and time consuming to refuse.
Placebo effect is huge!!! Especially if the drug is expensive!
We are one of the few countries with DTC (direct to consumer) advertising. Ban this and you reduce the demand for BS drugs. And ban using 100% OPM (other people’s money). If there are even small copays it reduces unnecessary use.
I am NOT an expert in ophtahamalogical pharmacology.
But Restasis had an EXCEPTIONAL marketing campaign so I have always been suspicious.
I don’t know about Anish, but you guessed right, I haven’t watched TV since 2007! As for your other points, I’m sure patients request drugs they see on TV. So what? Why shouldn’t they? That doesn’t mean anything about the worth of the drug, and neither does an exceptional marketing campaign mean that it the drug being promoted is snake oil.
On the question of OPM, I’m in favor of eliminating all of it in healthcare! But, again, the fact that drugs are paid for by third parties (fully or partially) only means that the prices are going to be higher than they would otherwise be. But it does not tell us anything about the actual value to the patient of this particular drug.