In a bid for transparency in pharmaceutical marketing, a bill introduced in the Maryland legislature would require drugmakers to disclose that they sell or are developing a medicine to combat an illness in disease awareness advertisements.
The legislation, which would also require disclosures from patient groups receiving financial support from drugmakers, appears to be the first effort to target tools that the pharmaceutical industry calls consumer education but critics sometimes deride as covert promotion.
Indeed, the impetus for the bill stems from concerns that, while disease awareness advertising may be motivated by a desire to educate the public, it also attempts to goose sales of existing medicines or position consumers to be alert to a forthcoming treatment from a drug manufacturer.Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…