45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2001

REQUESTING CONGRESS TO REVIEW AND RESTRICT FEDERAL FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION GUIDELINES ON DIRECT TO CONSUMER ADVERTISING FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.

WHEREAS, drug manufacturers spent one billion eight hundred million dollars ($1,800,000,000) in 1999 on mass media for direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, a thirty-eight percent increase over the previous year; and

WHEREAS, this amount represents a more than three thousand percent increase over the fifty-five million dollars ($55,000,000) spent in 1991; and

WHEREAS, spending in the first four months of 2000 continued to accelerate, reaching nine hundred forty-six million dollars ($946,000,000), which if continued would produce an annual direct-to-consumer advertising spending of over two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000); and

WHEREAS, direct-to-consumer advertising is a growing component of overall prescription drug promotional spending; and

WHEREAS, the top selling twenty-five drugs promoted directly to consumers accounted for more than forty percent of the spending increase in retail drug spending in 1999; and

WHEREAS, doctors wrote over thirty-four percent more prescriptions for the top twenty-five direct-to-consumer advertised drugs, compared to only five percent more prescriptions for all other drugs in 1999 compared to 1998; and

WHEREAS, sales of these drugs, newer and higher priced, have contributed powerfully to the steep increase in prescription drug spending; and

WHEREAS, in 1999 the average price increase for a prescription was ten percent, double the five percent increase for other medical products; and

WHEREAS, many observers and public health officials worry that direct-to-consumer advertising could undermine people's willingness to make lifestyle changes necessary to promote health and prevent disease; and

WHEREAS, direct-to-consumer advertising may be persuading consumers to push for newer, costlier drugs when less expensive drugs work just as well; and

WHEREAS, in 1997 the federal food and drug administration, after public hearing and debate, issued interpretations relaxing previous restrictions and making it easier for drug manufacturers to engage in direct-to-consumer advertising; and

WHEREAS, the advent of direct-to-consumer advertising has coincided with a sharp rise in the number of prescriptions written and overall spending on prescription drugs;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the congress of the United States be urged to review and revise the federal food and drug administration's regulations that permit direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, revising them to a stricter interpretation of the previous food and drug administration guidelines or a limitation on such advertising; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the food and drug administration be directed to develop regulations that encourage the pharmaceutical industry to promote its products more responsibly, regulate direct-to-consumer advertising more effectively and provide guidance for the medical and public health communities to educate the general public about drug therapies and alternatives in more constructive ways; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be sent to each member of New Mexico's congressional delegation and to the federal food and drug administration.