Professors speak out against advertising directly to consumers

The drug industry's “onslaught of advertising to promote prescription drugs… does not promote public health” and “increases costs and unnecessary prescriptions,” more than 200 US medical school professors said last week. In the United States the industry spends $4bn (£2.3bn; €3.3bn) a year on direct to consumer advertising.

The professors signed a petition organised by Commercial Alert, an Oregon based nonprofit organisation that seeks to “protect communities from commercialism.” The …