According to the analysis, US taxpayers lose more than $1 billion a year to Big Pharma thanks to laws that allow them to amortize marketing spending, according to analyzing campaigns for the Campaign for Sustainable RX Pricing (CSRXP) released on Tuesday.
CSRXP Found Ten pharmaceutical companies spent nearly $14 billion in 2023 on consumer (DTC) advertising.
IRS I’ll allow it The allowances claimed by CSRXP are companies that deduct these marketing costs from taxes claiming to take taxpayers from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion a year from the 10 companies included in the survey.
These 10 companies include Abbvie, Amgen, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Glaxosmithkline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Merck and Pfizer.
According to the survey, Pfizer spent the most on advertising in 2023 with a whopping $3.7 billion. Also, according to the company studyhas received more than $1 million in tax benefits.
Drug spending on advertising has skyrocketed since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first granted pharmaceutical DTC advertising in 1997.
From that time onwards for 2016, annual spending on medical marketing rose from $17.7 billion to $29.9 billion. According to the survey, DTC ads went from $2.1 billion to $9.6 billion over the same time frame.
The study also cited the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, which found a direct correlation between increased pharmaceutical advertising spending and increased drug costs.
CBO Estimated A 10% increase in DTC ads means that drug spending increases by 1-2.3%. Another study The National Economic Research Bureau (NBER) found that drug spending could reach 5.4%.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the newly created Health and Human Services (HHS), previously opposed the practice of drug advertising on television.
Cable News’ pharmaceutical ads will help influence the message news anchors provide each night, along with rising drug prices, Kennedy Jr. argued. (Related: Lobbyists descend to the Red State capital to protest the ban on food dyes inspired by Maha)
“I think that seeing people like Anderson Cooper makes about $20 million.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3bl0bwy3_i
Kennedy has previously indicated that he would advise Trump to ban drug ads.
100% true. The main purpose of pharma ads to consumers is to buy news media and make sure they rarely criticize Pharma. And the advertising budget for news media is @Google and @METAtraditional news sources remained purchased.https://t.co/urcqzqfkn4
– Jay Bhattacharya (@drjbhattacharya) February 3, 2024
Other Kennedy allies scheduled to be in Trump’s cabinet, like his NIH supervisor appointee Jay Bhattacharya, have also expressed support for the ban.
