We'll let you know in fifteen years if your pacemaker is safe.

AuthorPeters, Charles
PositionThe truth in advertising - Editorial

Many of us have been shocked by the misleading ads for prescription drugs that seem to appear every ten minutes on our television screens. The latest example is the Lipitor ad featuring an endorsement of the drug by Dr. Robert Jarvik, who is not only not a cardiologist--he is not even licensed to practice medicine, much less prescribe drugs.

One reason for the misleading ads is that the FDA does not have the power to review them in advance. Only after the ads appear can the agency punish the advertisers who deceive. But even then, it reviews only 35 percent of drug advertising, according to Francesca Lunzer Kritz, writing in the Los Angeles Times.

Why so few? Because the FDA is...

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