The pharmaceutical industry's ability to advertise drugs directly to consumers has long been a target of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who floated a ban on those ads in November and has argued that they lead Americans to use more prescription medications. But senior administration officials on Tuesday said the new memorandum goes beyond drugmakers and traditional TV advertising by also targeting ads on social media and digital platforms.
President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Tuesday that calls on federal health agencies to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose more side effects in their ads and enforce existing rules about misleading ads. The administration is pitching the moves as a way to increase transparency for patients. The U.S. is the only place, besides New Zealand, where pharma companies can directly advertise to consumers.