Dingell, Stupak praise firms for following AMA guidelines

Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak, who chair the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee thereof, respectively, praised Merck, Schering-Plough, Pfizer and J&J for agreeing to follow AMA guidelines regarding the use of docs in ads and to not advertise off-label uses of drugs, but complained of the firms’ refusal to commit to four more advertising conditions they’d requested, most notably a two-year moratorium on ads for new drugs. Instead, the four firms agreed to wait six months.