Dangers for patients

Advertising by pharmaceutical companies may affect patients directly or indirectly. Both doctor-directed and patient-directed advertising strategies have the potential to negatively impact the patient experience, if these strategies are abused. For example, the relationship between sales reps and doctors may produce a conflict of interest for the doctor in which the patient's well-being is no longer the one and only desired result. This relationship may cause doctors to inadvertently lose their objectivity as to which drugs are more appropriate, and how often to prescribe them.

A similar conflict of interest, and concomitant lack of objectivity, occurs for researchers who obtain funding from pharmaceuticals. Failure of researchers to report negative results because of a financial relationship with pharmaceuticals could result in the approval of drugs which are unsafe or ineffective.

When the pharmaceutical industries target ads directly to patients in the hopes of expanding their markets, they may encourage the public to believe that human suffering and pain are not typical aspects of life, but diseases that need to be cured. The continual creation of new diseases that require medical treatment may result in patients who overmedicate, or who involve themselves in unnecessary risks by taking drugs when they do not necessarily need them.

Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, most advertisements must include a brief summary that describe the risks and effectiveness associated with a drug. In printed ads, typically found in magazines, drug companies usually include the entire risk-related section of the approved label for the drug along with the advertisement. Because drug labeling is written for doctors and not consumers, people have expressed concern to the FDA that these warnings can not be easily understood by the patient. Thus, even when drug companies follow the federal guidelines for advertisement, they may fail to provide the patient with a proper understanding of drug safety and risk.

Some authors, such as Dr. Merrill Matthews Jr., have argued that direct-to-patient advertising may benefit patients. He argues that this type of advertising actually lowers the cost of drugs by creating a competitive market in which drug companies are forced to keep drug prices low. Such a decrease in cost could make some drugs available to patients who couldn't otherwise afford them. At the same time, however, making high-powered prescription drugs more easily available may increase the potential for overmedication by consumers.