WSJ on FDA Review of Pharmaceutical TV Ads

Article in the Wall Street Journal — FDA Sets Deal With Drug Firms On TV-Ad Vetting, by Anna Wilde Mathews.  One wonders about the possible preemption effects.  Here’s an excerpt:

The Food and Drug Administration has reached an agreement with the pharmaceutical industry that would require companies, for the first time, to pay fees to the agency for vetting their television advertisements, in exchange for speedier reviews.

The fees from the proposed agreement would help pay for new staff to be hired by the FDA to review the industry’s TV ads, people familiar with the deal said. Many drug makers are voluntarily submitting ads to be reviewed by the FDA.

The agreement would be proposed in tandem with a separate, five-year pact setting new user fees to be paid by drug makers to the FDA when the agency reviews their applications to market new medicines. That agreement is expected to require the industry to pay substantially more money to the FDA, with a large chunk going to fund drug-safety initiatives, said people familiar with the matter.

BGS