BILL NUMBER: AJR 49	CHAPTERED
	BILL TEXT

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER  136
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE  SEPTEMBER 7, 2006
	ADOPTED IN SENATE  AUGUST 22, 2006
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 25, 2006
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 16, 2006
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 19, 2006

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Nation

                        MARCH 29, 2006

   Relative to pharmaceutical advertisements.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AJR 49, Nation  Direct-to-consumer prescription drug
advertisements.
   This measure would request that the United States Food and Drug
Administration aggressively monitor and regulate direct-to-consumer
television advertising of prescription drugs by pharmaceutical
companies, and would memorialize the President and the Congress of
the United States to ban that advertising.




   WHEREAS, The United States is one of just a few countries that
allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise prescription drugs; and
   WHEREAS, Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising is a
category of promotional information about specific drug treatments
that is provided directly to consumers by or on behalf of drug
companies; and
   WHEREAS, Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising is not
necessary in order for pharmaceutical companies to sell their
products; and
   WHEREAS, Since pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to
broadcast advertisements that mention a prescription drug by name
without disclosing all of the risks of that medication, consumer
demand for prescription medications has increased, resulting in a
corresponding increase in the cost of prescriptions and of health
care delivery; and
   WHEREAS, While the pharmaceutical community has tried to convince
the public, Congress, and the United States Food and Drug
Administration (hereafter the FDA) that direct-to-consumer
prescription drug advertisements are educational rather than
promotional, the actual goal of the advertisements is not to educate
the public, but rather to ensure that patients walk out of their
doctors' offices with a prescription for a particular brand of
prescription drug rather than with a prescription for a competitor's
product or some other form of therapy that better suits the patient;
and
   WHEREAS, Physicians are under increasing pressure from patients
who suspect that health maintenance organization formularies restrict
physicians from prescribing the best prescription drugs; and
   WHEREAS, Direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs
forces physicians to spend valuable time defending the reason that an
advertised drug is unnecessary or detrimental to the patient's
health; and
   WHEREAS, If a physician declines to issue a prescription for a
drug that a patient has seen advertised, the patient may turn to
other sources to obtain the drug, including the Internet; and
   WHEREAS, According to the United States General Accounting Office,
the investigational arm of Congress, pharmaceutical manufacturers
spent $1.1 billion in 1997 on direct-to-consumer prescription drug
advertising, which increased to $2.7 billion in 2001, with
expenditures increasing by double digits every year; and
   WHEREAS, Numerous studies have linked the increased
direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising to the exponential
growth in prescription drug expenditures; and
   WHEREAS, In 1997, the FDA relaxed restrictions on the content of
direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, withdrawing the
prior requirement of a summary of side-effect and adverse reaction
information and replacing it with a requirement for a statement about
"major risks" but not "all risks," which made television and radio
advertisements about prescription drugs more practicable; now,
therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the United States Food and Drug
Administration is requested to aggressively monitor and regulate
direct-to-consumer television advertising of prescription drugs by
pharmaceutical companies, pending action by the President and the
Congress of the United States to ban that type of advertising; and be
it further
   Resolved, That the President and the Congress of the United States
are memorialized to ban direct-to-consumer television advertising of
prescription drugs by pharmaceutical companies; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the President of the United States, to the Speaker
of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the
Senate, to each Senator and Representative from California in the
Congress of the United States, to the Secretary of the United States
Department of Health and Human Services, and to the Director of the
United States Food and Drug Administration.