Durbin, Grassley Ask For Unanimous Consent To Pass Their Bill To Crack Down On Pharmaceutical Advertisements
The Senators’ bill would force Big Pharma to disclose prices when advertising prescription drugs, the UC request was blocked by a Senate Republican
WASHINGTON – Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked for unanimous consent (UC) to pass their bipartisan Drug-price Transparency for Consumers (DTC) Act, a bipartisan bill that would require price disclosures on advertisements for prescription drugs in order to empower patients and reduce Americans’ colossal spending on medications. The United States is one of only two industrialized countries in the world that allow drug advertising. Despite prior support for the measure from the Trump Administration, the request was blocked by a Senate Republican.
“You know the ads with the catchy jingle and flashy images of patients rock climbing, golfing, dancing, [or] parading? Big Pharma spends more than $6 billion a year to flood the airwaves with ads for the latest wonder-drug. Why? Why would they spend this much money to advertise [these drugs]? They [Big Pharma] spend such astronomical sums to promote their drugs because it increases their profit margins. Big Pharma thinks that if they hit you hard enough and often enough ad on TV, not only will you be able to pronounce but [you’ll also be able to] spell Xarelto. You’ll also [be able to] tell your doctor ‘that is my favorite blood thinner, I’ve seen that ad over and over again.’ Don’t take my word for it. The American Medical Association said ‘direct-to-consumer advertising inflates demand for new and expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate,’” Durbin said.
“When President Biden announced the 15 drugs that Medicare will negotiate for discounts, most Americans knew the names, maybe even knew the jingle: Ozempic, Trelegy, Ibrance, and Otezla. Sound familiar? Pharma spent hundreds of millions of dollars each year for you to ‘ask your doctor’ about these drugs. The result? Medicare spent $22 billion last year alone on these four heavily advertised medications,” said Durbin.
Last week, Durbin released a report about a new telehealth-advertising scheme launched by Pfizer and Eli Lilly. The report revealed relationships between drug companies seeking to sell their medications, and the telehealth companies hand-picked by these pharmaceutical giants, appear intended to steer patients toward particular medications. As the pharmaceutical industry floods the airwaves with commercials to increase demand for high-cost medications, these new telehealth platforms appear intended to churn out prescriptions to patients with just a few clicks online.
Durbin continued, “With online promotions and new websites, Pharma is urging patients to ‘click here’ to speak with a doctor. But those telehealth doctors are handpicked, they’ve been recruited, and paid for by the drug companies. Pharma is funneling patients to their chosen health care providers, to influence prescriptions for costly drugs. This raises concerns about conflicts of interest and inappropriate prescribing of drugs. All of this is a result of Pharma’s rampant advertising spree.”
Since 2017, Durbin has worked with Grassley to introduce bipartisan legislation to crack down on DTC advertisements. One-third of all commercials displayed on TV are of drugs from prescription drug companies. In 2023, Illinois company AbbVie spent $315 million on TV ads for Rinvoq, an eczema and arthritis drug. Nowhere in the commercial do they disclose it’s more than $6,100 per month.
Durbin continued, “It’s time to end Big Pharma’s secrecy. If they are going to advertise a drug, they also need to [mention] to the American public how much it costs. It’s basic. No gimmicks, no tricks. Just the truth by advertising [what]… the drug companies publish as the official price.”
Durbin continued, “Our common sense plan to require price disclosures in direct-to-consumer drug ads has already passed the Senate once before, in 2018… we knew that 88 percent of Americans support what we’re doing: disclosure of price. In fact, because of our work on this measure, Donald Trump made a statement: ‘Big announcement today: Drug companies have to come clean about their prices in TV ads. Historic transparency for American patients is here. If drug companies are ashamed of those prices—lower them!’”
“Big Pharma hates being honest with patients about the price of their drugs. They fear it’s going to cut into their profits. Patients, American citizens, and others deserve lower drug prices. The Trump Administration has called on Congress to rein in these deceptive drug advertisements. But Big Pharma is looking for one Senator to come down and object to the passage of this common sense bill. I hope we can pass it right now to deliver real relief at the pharmacy counter,” Durbin concluded.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that prescription drugs advertised directly to consumers accounted for 58 percent of Medicare’s spending on drugs between 2016 and 2018, while a 2023 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that two-thirds of advertised drugs offered “low therapeutic value.” By requiring direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements forprescription drugs to include a disclosure of the list price, patients can make informed choices when inundated with drug commercials and pharmaceutical companies may reconsider their pricing and advertising tactics. In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has sued to keep the prices of their drugs out of their TV advertisements.
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here for TV Stations.
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