Sherman Tanking of Drug Ads a Welcome Prescription

Gary Sherman wants to get rid of the pre-coital couple sitting in their bathtubs atop the mountain — and he couldn’t be more right.

Sherman is again sponsoring important legislation to ban prescription drug advertisements in Wisconsin.

The federal law change in the ’90s allowing pharmaceutical advertising on television, is up there with deregulation of banking and finance rules and media consolidation legislation that the public is going to pay for decades and beyond.
Americans pay more for drugs than other countries and we buy more drugs than other countries.

And part of that is because the pharmaceutical industry spends $5 billion annually to tell we need to buy their drugs.

A study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that drug companies the increase in sales for advertised drugs was over two dollars back for every buck spent on ads.

Moreover, these drug pimps focus on just a few medicines — those most likely to turn enormous profits.

Sherman’s bill is a welcome stance for Wisconsin consumers.