September 2006
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from our president
This monthly letter to subscribers from Consumers Union President Jim Guest highlights the critical consumer issues behind our current reports. See archived letters.



Sleepless in … well, everywhere

Jim Guest
CUT THROUGH THE HYPE
You can get the facts about insomnia drugs by going to our free Web site at www.
ConsumerReports.org/health.
The irony isn’t lost on us. A few years ago, the buzz was all about drugs for erectile dysfunction. Now the ailment of the week is insomnia. Seems we’re never satisfied with what goes on between dusk and dawn.

We don’t take either of those conditions lightly. But we do question a business model that markets medical treatments as if they were hemlines. It starts with drugmakers hyping a problem, because the more we’re all convinced that we have an ailment, the more readily we’ll pop a pill to cure it. And hype it they do. The most heavily advertised prescription drug in the U.S. last year was Lunesta, a newer type of prescription sleep aid. Butterflies may be free, but moths aren’t; Sepracor, the drug’s manufacturer, doled out $227 million to float its animated Luna moth past consumers’ eyes last year. All that fluttering worked: Sleep-deprived Americans spent about $329 million on the drug. Altogether, prescription insomnia medications brought pharmaceutical companies more than $2.7 billion in 2005.

Are that many more people tossing and turning today than five years ago? Probably not, though doctors agree that many who need help don’t seek it. Are the new drugs dramatically more effective than the old? No. Research shows that the newer and older drugs are about the same. We think consumers deserve unbiased, accurate information about how well drugs work, their risks, and whether they’re worth the cost. So in late 2004, Consumers Union launched Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, a free Web site reachable through www.ConsumerReports.org/health. We present readable summaries of classes of drugs, comparing effectiveness, side effects, and cost. We currently compare drugs in 14 categories--including cholesterol medications, antidepressants, and our newest, insomnia medications--so that you can work with your doctor or pharmacist to determine the best medication for the best price.

Today’s drug ads drive up health-care costs, overstate the value of pills, and underplay the dangers of new drugs that have not been proved safe over time. The pharmaceutical industry should stop the hype and give consumers additional and more-relevant facts. If it doesn’t--and its track record is not encouraging--the Food and Drug Administration needs to step in and require more balanced information about side effects, risks, and other factors that consumers and medical professionals need to make fully informed choices. For starters, we support the efforts by a bipartisan group in Congress calling for a moratorium on advertising new drugs, which would allow time to study the safety, efficacy, and risks of those medicines just entering the market.

For now, what should consumers do? Go to the CR Best Buy Drugs site to see whether the type of drug you take is included. View all drug ads with a critical eye, and ask your doctor about other medications, especially generic ones, which are not advertised, are less expensive, and have longer track records of safety and efficacy. And know that all prescription drugs have side effects; ask about options, such as changes in diet or behavior, that might work just as well. Because we’d all rather count our savings, not just sheep.

Jim Guest's signature.

Jim Guest
President