India Pharma Outlook Team | Friday, 12 September 2025
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the support of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has revealed strict measures, With the aim to shield consumers in a major way, which specifically address misleading direct-to-consumer advertisements of pharmaceuticals.
The agency is sending thousands of letters where it is requesting the removal of the ads which are non-compliant and issuing around 100 cease-and-desist orders in order to stop those promotions which are blatantly deceptive. A crucial element of this is getting rid of the “adequate provision” loophole from 1997, a history that led drug companies to hide the most important risk parts in broadcast and digital ads.
This has been one of the factors contributing to improper drug use and lowering the public’s trust in the institutions. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said, “We will stop the flow of deception and no other method but radical transparency can end the cycle of over medicalization.”
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The FDA states that the current ads are often lacking in providing fair balance, especially on social media, where influencer promotions that are not disclosed make it difficult to distinguish between content and advertising. A 2024 study discovered that while all pharmaceutical social media posts promote the benefits of the drug, only one-third of them disclose the potential harms.
To Fix the industry of concentration on advertising to the detriment of the reduction of drug prices FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said, "Pharma spends up to 25% of its budgets on ads," and pointed out that "Instead of that, companies should lower prices."
