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.
In the upcoming report, health leaders may seek to crack down on DTC ads, particularly on social media where telehealth companies use "deceptive" marketing tactics, according to draft strategy documents published by Politico. The leaked draft strategy contains policy recommendations from a group assembled by President Donald Trump and Kennedy, and its objectives could change before the official version is published. The White House stated it delayed the report's release to coordinate the schedules of officials involved in creating it, Politico reported.