Benefits of prescription drugs

To make this point, it is worth summarizing the views of several experts. Dr. Jerry Avorn of Harvard University lists these benefits of prescription drugs ... 

Although concerns about the high cost of prescription drugs and the lack of access to needed drugs dominate much of the discussion, others point to the opposite problems. They say the benefits of prescription drugs are overstated or overhyped. The public has too much access to prescription drugs... 

Avorn, Jerry. 2004. Powerful Medicines The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs. New York Alfred A. Knopf... 

Avorn J. Powerful medicines the benefits, risks, and costs of prescription drugs. New York Knopf 2004. 

All these complexities, ways around regulations, and tendencies to emphasize benefits over risks make regulation of prescription drug advertising challenging. Companies and advertisers can more quickly come up with new methods of publicizing their products and new ways to attract users than the FDA can control the ads. 

Upjohn claimed that documents it submitted, largely testimony from clinicians of the benefits of the drugs, demonstrated substantial evidence. Further, the prescription of the medicines by 23,000 physicians over past years demonstrated effectiveness. If the drugs failed to help in treatment, patients would object and physicians would discontinue the prescriptions. Sales and popularity of the drugs would fall. That widespread use and acceptance of the products thus met the standard of the law. 

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