AdWeek (via Yahoo): Drug Ads' Survival Hangs in Balance

In a two-day meeting in September, the Food and Drug Administration will consider proposals for continuing its current experiment with allowing direct-to-consumer drug ads. One proposal under consideration is stopping the advertising altogether. Pharmaceutical advertising started infusing tens of millions of dollars into the interactive marketing industry just as many Internet companies stopped spending on media in 1999.

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) earlier disrupted legislative attempts to curtail drug ad spending, citing research that showed consumers became more aware of threatening health issues. Other groups counter that the ads mostly serve to create drug fads and increase the cost of healthcare.

Dick O'Brien, an executive vice president of the 4As said that he believed the FDA would find a scientific justification for allowing ads to continue.