The advertising of prescription medications should not be allowed as it could create unnecessary demand and supply of medications, which could possibly lead to misuse and abuse of drugs. If we allow advertising, with the increase of demand and supply, there will be increase of danger of complications and fatalities that occur with the misuse of drugs. There are certain combinations of drugs (or medications) that should not be taken at the same time. The damage that taking wrong combinations of drugs can cause varies from feeling nauseous to fatal.
They are prescription drugs for a reason- they need to be prescribed by someone who is qualified, who knows what they are dealing with. It’s not trivial consumer items like cereals; it’s medication. You are dealing with health, life and death issue. (There have been a few reports saying that some wealthy American people use prescription medications as ‘party drugs’. It shows that depends on the amount and combination of medical drugs you take – they can actually cause similar effects as those of illegal drugs such as narcotics.
The demand created by advertising of prescription medications would also cause more trading of the drugs floating around in society, with possibilities of intentional abuse of the drugs. ) The nature of advertising is highly competitive. The advertisers and companies will always want to create more demand to make more profits. There should not be any competition in medical area like this. Firstly, the cost of advertisement could corrupt development of new medications in process as the money could be taken away from research and development.
It would also cause one brand to be more popular than the other, which indicates the possibilities of creating exclusive market; it would also lead to the decrease of research and development of new medications as their will be less variety and companies. ( and that the better drugs won’t be easily sold by consumers if the brand is not popular) (+ 30 second slot on a popular daytime show, the cost of this would have to be balanced out by a raise in the prices of the medication that the company is selling so that it continues to make profits) Secondly, the demand for medication is not meant to be created on purpose.
They are people who are really in the need of medications. There have been, and there always will be people taking medications prescribed by doctors, who are qualified and aware of the conditions of their patients. The demand is already there, thus there is no need to create more demand. The attempt to increase the demand could actually decrease the demand, as some people would feel embarrassed and reluctant to purchase medication when it’s publicly advertised. For example, you go to pharmacy and name the medications, and some people would be able to guess your medical conditions that you might want to keep as private matter.
(Might be used for rebuttal) With an advertisement, the advertisers will not tend to inform negative effects of the medicine as their intention is to give a good impression of the product and sell it. The notion that advertisement would be able to inform people and give the consumers greater choice and knowledge, can easily bring failure to notice the negative effects of drugs. And it would be already too late when consumers realise there was something wrong about medications they have taken. It’s always best to check your conditions and get prescription for right medications from doctors.
* Is it really good for economy? Is it really going to create more job offers? As I said before, the advertisement is very competitive that it could cause one company to exclude the other from market, which means the variety and availability of companies that can offer jobs would be decreased. It’s definitely not going to be good for economy. * Medications are drugs used to treat and cure illness. The further research and development should be continued to help those in need of medical help. The cost of advertisement will reduce the money invested in research and development of new medications.
That is why we should not allow the medications to be advertised. The medical industry aims for health of consumers (medication users), not the profit itself. (???? ) The advertisement of prescription medicine could have a negative effect on the government’s willingness to employ the PBS scheme. PBS scheme stands for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), scheme to subsidise life or death medicine to make it more affordable to those who need it in Australia. Allowing advertising of the medicine could bring corruption in the scheme.