U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Tuesday that aims to crack down on direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads on television and social media platforms, potentially disrupting billions of dollars in annual ad spending.
The executive action calls on federal health agencies to require pharmaceutical companies to disclose more side effects in their ads and enforce existing rules about misleading ads.
The administration also plans to scrutinize social media companies and influencers paid to promote pharmaceutical products without proper disclosures or without following the rules that drugmakers must follow, CNBC reported, citing officials.
The Trump administration will send out around 100 cease-and-desist enforcement letters and thousands of warning letters alerting companies that the government plans to enforce current regulations around those ads, the officials told reporters.
They noted that senators earlier this year wrote a letter to the FDA about a Hims & Hers (NYSE:HIMS)Super Bowl ad in February that promoted weight loss drugs from its online pharmacy “with really no mention of any potential harms.”
AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) immunology therapy Skyrizi topped the biggest TV drug ad spenders in 2024, according to a report from Fierce Pharma. Treatments from Sanofi (SNY)/Regeneron (REGN), Novo Nordisk (NVO), Otsuka Pharma (OTCPK:OTSKY) (OTCPK:OTSKF), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), and AstraZeneca (AZN) also made it into the top 10 list.
Relevant advertising stocks: WPP (WPP), Interpublic Group (IPG), Omnicom (OMC), Publicis Groupe (OTCQX:PUBGY)