WASHINGTON — Pick up this morning’s print edition of Politico and you’ll be hard-pressed to miss a striking missive against Democrats’ signature drug pricing bill, printed in full color and in all caps across the front page. “MANUFACTURERS OPPOSE DRUG PRICE CONTROLS,” the ad from the National Association of Manufacturers reads.
If you make it to page nine, the National Association of Manufacturers will hit you again, this time with a full-page, color ad hammering home the message they blasted all over this morning’s front page.
Turn to page 18 and you’ll find a very grumpy senior holding a doctor’s prescription pad that reads “56 fewer new treatments.” That ad is from PhRMA, which recently commissioned a study finding H.R. 3 could result in 56 fewer new drugs coming to market in the next 10 years.
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Thirty years ago our FTC would have limited and regulated these ads, but now they don’t have to! The ads don’t even have to be factual, even though they have a negative impact on public health. In Post Fact America anything goes, and lies are “Free Speech.”
I’ve seen a lot of re-written PRs in my day, but this is just…I mean, how did this get published? Is this…an ad for people doing a good job selling ads? …Why on earth would pharma drug pricing ads sell when pharma bills are introduced/passing? It’s almost as if ads are supposed to actually sway public opinion?