President Donald Trump is aiming to ramp up scrutiny on pharmaceutical ads — each on TV and social media — as his administration accuses corporations of deceptive the general public about drugs and their side results.
A directive Trump signed Tuesday duties the US Department of Health and Human Services and different companies with higher enforcement of present laws governing direct-to-consumer drug promoting that administration officers say corporations have more and more flouted lately.
In one other doubtlessly important transfer, the order additionally instructs the US Food and Drug Administration to craft new laws that may successfully remove a decades-old provision that officers have blamed for fueling an explosion of drug ads on tv and elsewhere.
It’s one other try by Trump to observe by way of on his long-held pledge to crack down on the pharmaceutical trade. His administration is already pushing drug makers to promote extra of their merchandise on to customers, in an effort to decrease costs. Trump wrote a letter to 17 drug firm CEOs in July directing them to take part in packages to promote sure medication on to customers or enterprise at “Most Favored Nation” costs, a phrase that refers back to the lowest value paid for a drug in a peer nation.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has additionally made it clear he’s no fan of drug ads on TV, posting on X final yr that he would search to ban pharmaceutical promoting if Trump received the election.
The memorandum stops properly in need of searching for a complete prohibition. But administration officers earlier on Tuesday argued that the trouble to bolster enforcement and ultimately require extra in depth disclosures amounted to the “strongest, boldest action that we can take” to make sure “patients have adequate safety information on pharmaceutical ads.”
Current laws specify that drug ads can’t create a “misleading impression” and must present a “fair balance” of data. But FDA enforcement lately has been lax, a senior administration official informed reporters forward of the Oval Office announcement. Only one enforcement letter was despatched in 2023, and none have been issued final yr.
The FDA is issuing about 100 cease-and-desist enforcement letters and hundreds of warning letters to corporations on Tuesday, informing them that it plans to implement present laws, the official mentioned. They declined to call any of the businesses receiving letters, however pointed to a Super Bowl advert for weight reduction medication — which drew criticism from senators and others for not together with security and side impact info — as one instance of the issue.
Also, the company will increase its oversight to social media platforms, together with social media influencers who could also be paid to advertise drug merchandise with out offering correct disclosures or following the identical guidelines as drug makers.
“People are seeing ads sometimes not even realizing that they’re pharmaceutical ads when a paid social media influencer is touting a product,” the senior official mentioned. “They’re seeing ads that have zero mention of any side effects, even though there are very real side effects.”
Plus, the administration plans to challenge new laws to shut a provision created in 1997 that permitted pharmaceutical corporations to incorporate solely a brief overview of a drug’s side results of their commercials, as long as customers have been directed to a fuller rundown revealed elsewhere. That change, Trump administration officers mentioned, drove a pointy enhance in pharmaceutical advertising as a result of it allowed corporations to extra simply create shorter tv spots.
Officials provided few specifics on what precisely the overhaul would seem like, or whether or not the aim was to successfully make it unimaginable for drug corporations to promote on tv. But the second senior administration official mentioned that the laws would require corporations to make way more in depth disclosures.
“Absolutely the ads will need to be longer,” the second official mentioned.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a number one commerce group, mentioned that direct-to-consumer promoting provides sufferers info they should make knowledgeable selections about their care in session with their medical doctors.
“Truthful and non-misleading DTC advertising is protected under the First Amendment and has documented evidence of advancing patient awareness and engagement,” Alex Schriver, senior vp at PhRMA, mentioned in an announcement.
This is just not the primary time Trump has directed his consideration to drug commercials. During his first time period, a federal judge nixed the administration’s effort to require drug makers to include their list prices in TV ads, saying HHS had overstepped its authority.
TV ads are a key approach for pharmaceutical corporations to lift consciousness of their merchandise, although some physicians say the spots can present sufferers with deceptive info.
Drug makers spent a whopping $5.15 billion on national TV ads in 2024, in response to analysis agency eMarketer. They continued to open their wallets in 2025, spending just shy of $3 billion on nationwide TV ads in the course of the first half of the yr, a 12.2% year-on-year enhance.
The well being care and drug trade is presently No. 4 when it comes to whole TV advert spending by trade, accounting for 11.1% of the market, in response to eMarketer information shared with NCS.
NCS’s Liam Reilly contributed to this report.