...May cause death, insanity or loss of limbs

[canetoad]

The only time I see US TV is when plugging into a bootleg stream of MSNBC to watch Rachel, Lawrence & Brian, which includes the ads.

After a happy yet concerned spiel about the latest drug, follows a rushed gabble of possible side effects. It's so quick that I can't transcribe it; sometimes it goes on for 20 or so seconds. All I can pick up is that there possibly could be dire consequences of the wrong person taking this drug.

I guess the intent is to get you, the consumer, to ask your doctor about this drug. I'm quite gobsmacked about this obvious pitch to sell drugs that may not be needed on TV ads.

[GReedDiamond]

1. It used to be illegal for pharmaceutical companies...

...to run tv ads.

These ads require the interested viewer to self-diagnose themselves and, yes, call their doctor and get the drug.

Bad.

[RussellCattle]

2. I started writing down the names of the various drugs that I saw advertised on TV...

.....back in February. In three months I had listed 60 different prescription medications and I don't watch that much television. I got tired of it but since then have seen numerous new drugs being pitched, sometimes as many a four during a half hour news broadcast. If the drug companies are not fishing for customers when they say "ask your doctor about" such and such, what are they doing. How much of drugs high costs are the result of all this advertising?

[GReedDiamond]

5. Yes x 1000...nt

[burrowowl]

7. and lawyers and doctors, yes I remember.

[GReedDiamond]

8. Yeah again!

I'm very old...

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. I just a great documentary on this problem.

Documentary is called The Bleeding Edge.
It initially focuses on a birth control device and a weak bladder mesh, both were planted in women's bodies,
both caused massive problems, then were impossible to fully remove because their design made them absorbed by the body.
Neither was ever tested in a full medical trial.

Same problem with materials they use for hip/knee replacements, some materials, like cobalt, and some ceramics, have caused severe side effects.

They also covered issues of Cat scans ( radiation) and all the robotic surgeries, turns out doctors don't get
sufficient training to do them, so patients are again the testing ground.


Mostly because the medical industry has captured the FDA even before trump arrived.
Now WE, the customers, are the guinea pigs of new drugs and procedures, and WE are supposed to tell the FDA about any problems.

Excellent documentary.

[GReedDiamond]

21. Thanks dixiegrrrrl, I had not heard of that documentary...nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. The Bleeding Edge is on Netflix now, btw......n/t

[AmyStrange]

3. Some of the side effects...

-

seem worse than the medical problem.

Did you really see one with death, insanity or loss of limb as a side effect?

Who the hell would take a drug with those side effects?

What am I talking about, people use Krocodile and that shit is super dangerous, or so I've heard.

You're joking, right?

https://www.drugs.com/illicit/krokodil.html
===========

[canetoad]

4. No - I was filling in the words

That were rattled off too quickly for anyone to hear and comprehend when seeing the ad.

The point is that after a glowing tribute to the effects of the drug, an announcer quietly and quickly recites a screed of side effects that no one could be expect to take in, then at the end, as the poster above says, 'Ask your doctor'.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. I can't resist posting another Opdivo commercial...

... as a reply to you!

Listen to this commercial, with the side-effects starting at about the 35-second mark:

Some of the comments for that video are hilarious!

(Sorry to anyone here with that type of cancer or any other kind! Not laughing about that!)

[canetoad]

13. Wow, thank you for posting this

It's an exact illustration of my post. How can this be ethical?

[AmyStrange]

19. At the end of the list, they even added...

-

"these are not all the possible side-effects, so see your doctor," and the comments after including, "choose your own side-effect: The constipation side-effect is a God send..."

If this disease wasn't so sad, it would be hilarious.
===========

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. I dozed off on my couch months ago while the TV...

... was still on, and awoke to one of those types of commercials (with my eyes still closed) with so many horrible side-effects that I thought it must be satire from a comedy show. I opened my eyes just as it was ending.

I tried so hard to find that commercial online later, but had no luck. What I had heard in my half-awake state had seemed so unreal that I was almost desperate for verification.

Then I happened to see it again several weeks later. It was a drug to supposedly help prolong the life of people who would be on the verge of death anyway. So then all of the terrible side-effects (which I'd indeed heard correctly) made more sense.

Now I don't remember the name of the drug again!

Edit:

This is the drug... Opdivo. It's intended for people with uncontrollable cancer.

The possible side-effects start around the 50-second mark:

Edit 2:

I won't post the other commercials for this drug that are on YouTube, but I'm pretty sure that I first heard one of the other ones... which goes through an even longer list of possible side-effects!

[canetoad]

14. "For adults with advanced lung cancer"

Make your own decisions based on our ad.

[liberaltrucker]

9. At first, I thought you were referring to a newly discovered Australian life form

[malaise]

11. I laugh when I watch these ads and listen to the side effects

To stop one problem you sign on to kill yourself with several others. Why do people buy into this crap?

[canetoad]

15. Does you local broadcaster

Allow these kinds of ads? Ours doesn't, violates all sorts of regulations.

[malaise]

16. Same here

[madaboutharry]

12. These ads are a public nuisance.

They ought to be banned. People watch them and either want their doctor to prescribe these drugs, which may inappropriate for a number of reasons, or may stop taking something they really need. It drives doctors nuts.

[milestogo]

17. Pharmaceutical companies want people to beg their doctors for drugs.

They should be marketing to doctors, not patients.

The listing of requirements is legally required, but they don't really want you to hear it.

[malaise]

18. It is stunning indeed

No wonder the Con thinks he can prescribe inappropriate medicine and cleaning chemicals ëvilgrin:

[Raine]

23. I absolutely despise those ads

those ads are so long too going on and on, longer then regular commercials. It seems like there's hardly ad time for any ordinary product because they take up most of the air time.