“Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) campaign, a vital agenda for President Donald Trump’s second term, has taken initial steps to address issues such as mercury in vaccines, artificial food coloring, and ultra-processed foods.
The progress largely owes to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ran as an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential election before ultimately withdrawing in August 2024 and endorsing then-presidential candidate and former President Trump.
Two days before the presidential election, Kennedy Jr. highlighted a noteworthy aspect of the MAHA agenda, urging voters to support Trump to “allow us to ban drug ads,” directly targeting the brand drug ads prevalent in many online programs.
According to a report by Rand Corporation based in California, the U.S. has the highest consumption of prescription drugs globally, with spending on prescription drugs nearly double the sum of all other developed countries.
Currently, independent senators and Democratic senators are leading efforts in legislation to eliminate direct-to-consumer drug ads, including ads on social media. Democratic members of the House of Representatives have also introduced a similar bill.
Federal Senator Josh Hawley (Missouri Republican) has shown openness to proposals from his Senate colleagues. Senator Hawley has participated in a bipartisan proposal aimed at ending tax breaks for pharmaceutical companies engaged in promotional activities.
Despite enthusiasm from some lawmakers for legislative reform in this area, past court rulings may pose obstacles to reform, as any strong restrictions on marketing practices of large pharmaceutical companies could potentially conflict with the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Critics of drug advertising, including Kennedy Jr., have long pointed out that direct-to-consumer drug ads are uncommon worldwide, with only the United States and New Zealand allowing such practices.
In May of this year, the MAHA Committee released a report on chronic diseases in children, expressing concerns about pharmaceutical companies targeting ordinary Americans with drug ads. The report highlights that these advertising activities encourage “overreliance by stakeholders in the medical system on the pharmaceutical industry (rather than exploring alternative non-drug approaches).”
The report also cites opinions from medical research papers, linking the phenomena of overdiagnosis and overuse of drugs (including in children) to drug advertising.
Data from IQVIA, an analysis company based in Connecticut, shows that by 2023, Americans were consuming over 210 billion doses of drugs daily.
In April, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director Dr. Marty Makary stated, “We currently do not have any plans to ban direct-to-consumer advertising.” He added, “We can take steps to ensure that drug advertisements must present comprehensive information.”
Due to relevant legal precedents, eliminating direct-to-consumer drug ads may be challenging. In the United States, including pharmaceutical companies, corporations enjoy broad freedom of commercial speech.
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal law restricting certain drug ads violated the First Amendment of the Constitution.
About a decade later, the Supreme Court again overturned a Vermont law prohibiting the use of prescription drug user data for drug marketing on the grounds of freedom of speech.
Despite the Supreme Court’s precedents on the issue, some legislators still hope to bring this matter before the public.
In June, independent federal senators Bernie Sanders (Vermont Independent) and Angus King (Maine Independent), along with several Democratic federal senators, introduced the “End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act.”
The bill amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to define all direct-to-consumer ads as “misbranding,” thus prohibiting them.
King stated in a statement, “This bill takes an important step to ensure that patients can receive the most accurate drug information from the correct sources. The right source should be the patient’s healthcare provider, not biased advertisers.”
The two independent senators drew support from five Democratic federal senators, including Tammy Duckworth (Illinois Democratic), Peter Welch (Vermont Democratic), Dick Durbin (Illinois Democratic), Jeff Merkley (Oregon Democratic), and Chris Murphy (Connecticut Democratic).
The bill is currently before the Senate Health Committee, where Sanders is a senior member. As of the time of this writing, Sanders’s office had not responded to requests for comment from this publication.
On July 21, King told The Epoch Times that, to his knowledge, there are currently no Republicans in the Senate supporting the proposal.
On the same day, Senator Hawley, known for economic populism, expressed his willingness to accept the bill.
“I haven’t read Sanders’s bill, but I think it’s a solid addition,” he told The Epoch Times.
He noted that the bill aligns with his own legislation addressing concerns raised by Health Secretary Kennedy in solving the issue of drug advertising.
In May, Hawley and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire Democratic) submitted the “No Handouts for Drug Advertisements Act.”
Under current law, pharmaceutical companies can apply for tax breaks for advertising complex drugs (combinations or customized drugs based on individual patient conditions) and prescription drugs. Hawley and Shaheen’s proposal would put an end to this practice.
“Health Secretary Robert Kennedy has clearly stated his desire to ban prescription drug ads, and I am proud to introduce legislation to achieve this goal,” Hawley said in a statement regarding the bill.
Like Sanders and King’s bill, this bill is awaiting review by the Senate committee. The “No Handouts for Drug Advertisements Act” has been submitted to the Senate Finance Committee.
Representative Greg Murphy (North Carolina Republican), a physician, introduced the House version of Senator Hawley and Shaheen’s bill in April. The bill has also been submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee.
“Patients should trust their doctors for medical guidance, not 30-second TV ads,” Murphy said at the time.
The House version of Hawley and Shaheen’s bill has bipartisan co-sponsors, including Republican Nick Begich from Alaska, and Democrats Hillary Scholten from Michigan and Angie Craig from Minnesota.
On July 22, Representative Ilhan Omar (Minnesota Democratic) told The Epoch Times that she will support the House version of Sanders and King’s proposal.
When asked if she was concerned about the bill being rejected by the courts, she said, “I believe we should give it our best shot.”
Two days later, Omar, along with Representatives Jerry Nadler (New York Democratic) and Maxine Dexter (Oregon Democratic), launched the House version of the “End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act.” Dexter, like Murphy, is a physician.
As of the time of this writing, the Department of Health and Human Services has not responded to requests for comment.
The original article: “The MAHA Priority Pursued by Lawmakers on Both Sides of the Aisle” was published in the English edition of The Epoch Times.