To the Editor:

I believe in freedom and thus free markets, but I also believe in common sense. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) allowed pharmaceutical companies to start advertising prescription drugs on TV in 1997. Big Pharma calls this direct marketing; I would call it stupid and wasteful spending. In 2020 they spent $4.58 billion on TV advertising for products that you are not able to buy unless your doctor writes you a prescription. If you have to tell your doctor what to prescribe for you, then I suggest you need to get a new doctor, not a drug.

You have probably noticed that there are now a very high percentage of commercials on TV that are for prescription drugs. It is estimated that they will have spent $20 billion on commercials in 2024. This is the equivalent of advertising car commercials to children on cartoon stations. They can’t buy cars; you can’t buy drugs without a doctor. Would it not have been better and wiser to lower the cost of the prescription drugs by $20 billion than to add this to their cost — just a common sense thought. The saddest experience in my years of practice was people having to choose what medications they could afford to take, and thus this affecting their treatment and outcome.

Dr. John J. Conrad

Salem