In a Washington meeting sponsored by the Prescription Project, Congressman Waxman, the recently elected chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee outlined some of his plans for the coming year:
He wants to work closely with the Obama administration to pass healthcare reform, and thinks we have a unique opportunity to pass such legislation.
In his plans he outlined that he supports restrictions on DTC advertising for first two years of certain new drugs on a case-by-case basis:
“Americans must face an inconvenient truth about drug safety,” he acknowledged that in an effort to get therapies to people, we have to let drugs on the market whose full safety profiles aren’t known.
"It is in these first few years of a drug's life that drug companies often aggressively market their products and engage in direct-to-consumer advertising. This increases the number of consumers exposed to safety risks of new products long before those risks are truly understood,"
Some of his other proposals included: expanding SCHIP, Generic Biologics and FDA regulatory authority over tobacco.
Reuters: US Democrats Back Advertising Limits for Medicines
Notes from the Waxman Presentation — Prescription Project: Rep.Waxman addresses Prescription Project conference