M e d i c i n e A v e n u e Backlash to the Promotional Explosion he change in Rx promotion did not sit well with some physicians, academics, and consumerists of the day. Since the torn of the century, pharmaceutical and scientifically oriented health products companies—to set themselves apart from the excesses of advertising by quacks and patent medicines—had taken a conservative tone in their promotion, adopting the non-commercial coloration of their customers, physicians and hospitals. The promotion of the 1950's was a sharp break from this quasi-institutional stance. To some, the new style of promotion was offensive and the volume excessive. Moreover, drug prices had increased, reflecting the level of investment in research and the market value of therapeutic improvement provided by the new products. But some saw higher prices taking advantage of patients. And, they viewed climbing stock values and high return-on- investment as evidence of exploitation of the public by the industry. Additionally, some wonder drugs had run into serious problems. Chloromycetin (Parke-Davis), a widely used antibiotic, was foimd to cause fatal blood dyscrasias. Negative research findings, it was discovered, had been suppressed on MER-29 (Merrell), an aggressively advertised cholesterol-lowering agent, and the product was withdrawn. A scandal developed over an FDA official accepting income from a drug company for reprints of articles in a publication he edited. Following an FTC investigation, five of the biggest drug companies were indicted for collusion to fix antibiotic prices. A patina of complaint and criticism began to dull the luster of the pharmaceutical industry, and as the industry became a political target, its advertising and promotional practices came in for negative scrutiny. The social critique of the pharmaceutical industry climaxed at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Senate's Judiciary Committee chaired by Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Kefauver had gained national attention through televised hearings he had conducted around the country on organized crime. Fie had been an unsuccessful vice presidential candidate, running with Adlai Stevenson in 1956. In the late 1950's, he turned his attention to "administered prices," first focusing on the auto, steel and baking industries. These investigations sparked little interest, but when he turned to the drug industry, he struck a sensitive issue with the public and the media on the subject of "prices, profits, and promotion." 4 2
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