Marketplace interviewed Manatt's Ian Spatz, a senior advisor in the firm's Healthcare practice, for an article on the American Medical Association's call to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and medical devices. The group says the advertisements are boosting demand for expensive, and sometimes inappropriate, treatments and are fueling the rise in drug prices.
Drug prices aren't based on production or advertising costs, said Spatz. "They're based on what a company perceives is the value in the marketplace and what people are willing to pay for a medicine," he said.
Even so, "there are good arguments that it encourages the use of drugs that may be more expensive than alternatives that are available," Spatz said.
Read the article here.