Drug TV commercials aren’t made to sell drugs, but to keep the networks quiet

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The commercials disclose all the side effects already.

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Some of them at 100 words per minute speed. Wouldn’t it be interesting to watch neutral investigation into these drugs?

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How so? Be specific.

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Drug reps.

And maybe ‘bought off’ was too strong a term in my part.

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Doctors who can prescribe the drugs are already bought off by the drug reps.

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I had a doctor who always had pharm reps in his office. They were always waiting in the back... They were all pretty hot.. I never saw a male rep there. I don't think he was bought or paid off, but you could tell which rep he probably liked more by what he would prescribe at the time. There was always a pharm doing "big things" that he liked what they were doing and would prescribe shite.. "just in case".

My current doctor is almost the opposite. He prescribes as little as possible and will start you off with a low dose and then go up if needed. I never see pharm reps at his place.

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Drug reps.

And maybe ‘bought off’ was too strong a term in my part.

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Ok so what about them? What are they doing that is so sinister to force them to prescribe?

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Some of them at 100 words per minute speed. Wouldn’t it be interesting to watch neutral investigation into these drugs?

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The FDA does this and it's very thorough. There is also required adverse event reporting for all Pharma companies. The vast majority of drugs that enter clinical trials do not receive approval and there are many examples of drugs being pulled off the market after approval for various reasons including side effects, a lack of efficacy, and the like.

And none of the above precludes anyone (say, a channel that does not receive any money to run Pharma ads) from running whatever stories they'd like.

And how does this communication work...are you suggesting that when these media companies are buying the placements, they're saying hey, we'll run with you guys but you cannot do any investigative reporting into their products? How exactly would that get communicated and agreed to?

I fail to see any issues or anything untoward in what you just described.

And this may shock some people, but many doctors are dudes. They tend to prefer speaking to attractive women just like the rest of us non-soys. As such, they are more likely to find time to speak to those reps.

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When is the last time you saw a TV news report about the side effects / negative results for a drug that advertises on said network?

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Every single time.

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I think the doctors’ minds are largely influenced by things other than commercials. Free lunched and dinners and such

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That is retarded. I’m not going to prescribe a medication just because a rep brought in lunch.

And even the less likely side side effects are broadly mentioned...

Every. Single. Drug. has side effects.

But, just don't take them, right?

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And even the less likely side side effects are broadly mentioned...

Every. Single. Drug. has side effects.

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No shite. It's all mandated what they have to disclose and is based on the incidences of specific side effects in the clinical trials of the drug, most often their phase III pivotal trials. The actual label and the language within it is also negotiated as part of those FDA reviews.