Pharma's latest headache: HHS requirement to include drug price in TV ads will mislead consumers and violates first amendment

Sheldon Bradshaw, partner at law firm King & Spalding, provides an Expert View on the impact of a new US proposal to require that drugmakers list prices in direct-to-consumer advertising.

Drug companies, which have learned to live with advertisements calling out a litany of possible side effects for their drugs, may want to take a couple of aspirin. That’s because the Department of Health and Human Services recently announced a new proposed rule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that would require them to disclose the list price — more precisely, the wholesale acquisition cost — of medications they sell in direct-to-consumer television ads.

While making drug prices more transparent is a laudable goal, posting the wholesale list price in an ad will not provide consumers any insight into how much they will actually pay for the drug. Instead, it will only serve to mislead and harm patients. And, for those who still care about such things, compelling drug companies to engage in government-required speech violates the First Amendment.