Independent Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine have introduced a bill that would ban pharmaceutical companies from advertising directly to consumers.
The End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act would prevent drugmakers from promoting prescription drugs through television, radio, print, digital platforms and social media.
“The American people are sick and tired of greedy pharmaceutical companies spending billions of dollars on absurd TV commercials pushing their outrageously expensive prescription drugs,” Sanders said in a release, adding that the U.S. and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow pharma ads to appear on TV.
The proposal is likely to receive support from the Trump administration. Though the president has yet to comment on the bill, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during his 2024 presidential campaign that he would issue an executive order to halt drug ads on television.
Additionally, two days before the election, Kennedy posted a video of his speech from a Trump rally and wrote on social platform X, “Let’s get President Trump back in the White House and me to D.C. so we can ban pharmaceutical advertising.”
While Sanders and King voted against the confirmation of Kennedy to head the HHS, they’ve found common ground with the administration’s efforts to rein in the pharmaceutical industry, including President Donald Trump’s push to reduce the price of drugs in the U.S.
"Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising is designed to provide information backed by fact-based research, so patients are better informed about their health care and treatment options," a spokesperson for industry association PhRMA said. "We believe policymakers should ensure patients have access to the information they need to make health care decisions."
Shortly after the election in November, research firm Intron Health identified a ban on drug advertising as “the biggest imminent threat from RFK and the new Trump administration.”
The analysts noted that the return on investment for DTC drug ads is significant—with “estimates ranging as high as 100%-500%, depending on the drug.” Intron added that pharmas would “almost certainly” see their drug sales take a hit from a DTC ban, even as they save money on marketing spending.
Companies that would be especially affected by a ban include AbbVie, which promotes Skyrizi and Rinvoq; Regeneron and Sanofi, with their ads for Dupixent; and Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which market their diabetes and obesity products.
Additionally, in the first quarter of this year, TV ad spending rose 30% compared to the same period in 2024, with major advertisers including Johnson & Johnson (Tremfya), Novartis (Pluvicto), and Lundbeck and Otsuka (Rexulti).
A ban on DTC drug advertising would face a multitude of legal hurdles. Dating to the 1970s, U.S. courts have ruled that advertising is protected under the First Amendment’s guarantee of the right to free speech.
But even if the bill falls short, the effort could gain enough traction to allow Kennedy to push for an overhaul of the agency’s regulations around drug ads.
For example, those regulations were revamped last year, with all TV and radio ads requiring a “major statement” detailing a drug’s side effects to be presented “in a clear, conspicuous, and neutral manner.”
Earlier this year, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) led a group of senators proposing to boost price transparency in DTC pharma ads. In addition, King introduced legislation that would prohibit drugmakers from advertising their products in their first three years on the market.