FDA bill currently in consideration to regulate prescription drug advertising

WASHINGTON A new user fee program for Direct-To-Consumer broadcast ads will soon be put into law as part of a Food and Drug Administration bill working its way through Congress.

As a result, sponsors will soon have to tell the FDA how many of these ads it expects to submit for pre-view during the fiscal year 2008. Otherwise, you can be charged 50 percent for late penalty fees or lose your payment if you underestimate the number of ads you’ll run.

The FDA will be given power to determine what is acceptable and what is not, so it will be the job of the sponsors to conform to the FDA’s requirements to avoid those extra fees. The ads could be priced anywhere from $62,500 to $83,000, depending on how much money the FDA will need to keep the program going.