Online giants push for more drug ads

I don’t know many people who wish they could see more drug ads with less information.

But somehow, online giants Google and Yahoo think poor old Big Pharma needs more help reaching out to you, especially on the Internet… and they know just the thing to get the job done: looser regulations for online ads.

Isn’t that just what you’ve been asking for? No? Too bad – they’re already aggressively lobbying Washington to make it happen.

These changes would be some of the worst in the history of drug advertising – which is probably why the Food and Drug Administration is ignoring all common sense and considering them. Let’s face it: When it comes to protection from Big Pharma, we’re usually on our own anyway… so don’t be surprised if Big Pharma and Big Internet get their collective wish.

Right now, drug ads have to mention side effects along with any potential benefits. But the Internet moguls are thinking, “Hey, we’re the NEW media… so why should we have to play by the OLD rules?”

They’re offering the FDA the deal of a lifetime: Instead of mentioning side effects in online drug ads, they can just provide a link to an FDA site with that information.

Then, later on, when a med causes you to grow a third eye or sprout wings, it’s your fault for not clicking the right link to read about these and other potential side effects.

“These new media are emerging at an increasingly rapid rate, and are being regulated by an agency that moves very slowly,” Mark Senak, an attorney who advises drug companies, told the Associated Press. “In essence, you have a regulatory communication crisis developing.”

Crisis? Do these people live on the same planet as the rest of us? Have you heard a single person outside of the drug industry complaining about how difficult it is to create online drug ads? Have you heard anyone complain that there aren’t enough drug ads online?

I haven’t either. So let me tell you what’s really going on here.

I know it’s easy to think of Google and Yahoo as friendly companies. Many of us use their sites each day. I know I do. They give us free e-mail, and plenty of other useful services too (as well as more than a few that just waste time). And they have silly names.

But peel away that veneer and you’ll find that they’re just like any other billion-dollar profit-driven company.

They’re not trying to do you any favors. They’re just trying to make money for their shareholders, plain and simple, and Big Pharma represents a quick and easy way to tap a new revenue stream. Drug companies have deep pockets – they spent $4.3 billion in ads directed at consumers last year… and only a small piece of that, around 3 percent, was spent online.

So these online companies are salivating about what it would mean if online spending became, say, 10 percent of that ad budget… or 20 percent… or 50 percent. Each single percentage point represents a $43 million slice of that pie, so you can see the kind of money at stake here – and how quickly it can ad up.

At the end of the day, that’s more important to them than your health or even your access to the right information when it comes to meds.