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# FDA Wants Comments on Proposed DTC Study
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-wants-comments-on-proposed-dtc-study/
- Published: 2018-10-16T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:38:25.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5142593

FDA is soliciting comments on proposed research entitled “Disease Awareness and Prescription Drug Promotion on Television.” A *Federal Register* [notice](https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2018-22567.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com) says that when pharmaceutical companies market a new drug, “they often also release disease awareness communications about the medical condition the drug is intended to treat. FDA is interested in whether and to what extent this practice may result in consumers confusing or otherwise misinterpreting the different information and claims presented in disease awareness communications and prescription drug promotion.”

Prior research, the notice says, has documented that in both print and online contexts, consumers tend to conflate the information presented in prescription drug promotional materials with information presented in disease awareness communications. “Specifically,” FDA says, “the results of these studies suggest consumers incorrectly ascribe benefits to a prescription drug as a result of being exposed to information in the disease awareness communication that broadly describes the symptoms and negative consequences of the disease…. The present research seeks to extend previous studies of print and online promotion to the context of television promotion, and broadly examine how perceptual similarity between the two communication types, as well as their temporal proximity and exposure frequency, may impact the nature and extent of viewer confusion.”