A Prescription for Profit In 2007, the pharmaceutical industry spent approximately $4.8 billion annually advertising prescription drugs directly to the public (ProCon.org 2005) . A study conducted by two researchers at the University of York estimates that the US pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development (University of York, 2008). Why do they spend so much money on consumer-facing marketing? The simple answer is profit. Like any other business, pharmaceutical companies aim to sell a product and make money. The main concern of the pharmaceutical industry is not the well-being of the consumer but convincing him to take the drug. To eliminate this conflict of interest, the pharmaceutical industry should be prohibited from marketing its products directly to consumers. Direct-to-consumer drug advertising has been legal in the United States since 1985, but exploded in 1997 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) relaxed rules regarding disclosure of side effects in television advertisements (Calfee, 2002). From that moment the in...