American College of Clinicians Announcement
The American College of Clinicians issued a press release today about direct-to-consumer advertising.
The American College of Clinicians (ACC) an organization that advocates for the nurse practitioner and physician assistant professions is pleased to announce a major agreement with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals regarding the language used in their direct to consumer advertising campaigns. This is the second major accord in the last few months on this issue, the last being with GlaxoSmithkline. In negotiations which are still being conducted, a number of agreements were made between Pfizer and the ACC relating to the problem of identifying who prescribes to the public in commercials designed to go directly to the consumer (DTC). The issue concerned phrases that suggest that "doctors" are the only clinicians who prescribe or the only professionals who are allowed to diagnose and treat most illnesses. As PAs and NPs are also allowed to diagnose and prescribe, a high majority of our members felt that these phrases were inaccurate and are commonly used by many different companies in their DTC campaigns.
As a result of these ongoing talks between the ACC and Pfizer, Pfizer has agreed that commercials that state "Only your doctor can prescribe" a particular product will be discontinued as these respective ad campaigns play out.
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