The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to launch a study of how well consumers understand the lengthy list of safety risks listed in drug advertisements — and whether there are so many warnings that their eyes glaze over.
But the study, and related work at the FDA, have irked the drug industry and spurred critics of direct-to-consumer drug advertisements to argue the agency should be doing more.
To meet regulatory requirements, drug companies typically include risk information about a product in two sections of a print ad. The FDA wants to know whether doubling down on that risk information “overwarns” consumers, leading them to gloss over the possible side effects.
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