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# Janssen Becomes First to Add Pricing Info in DTC Ads
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/janssen-becomes-first-to-add-pricing-info-in-dtc-ads/
- Published: 2019-02-08T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T01:01:46.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5143341

Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical group Janssen says it is taking the lead to begin including list price information in drug direct-to-consumer (DTC) TV ads. Later this quarter, the company says pricing disclosures will begin with its oral anti-coagulant Xarelto, and the advertising will include both the list price and potential patient out-of-pocket costs.

The company’s decision to disclose the pricing comes in reaction to the Trump Administration’s [American Patients First Blueprint](https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/AmericanPatientsFirst.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com) issued 5/2018 that proposed requiring the pricing information in DTC ads. “We saw an opportunity to envision – and implement – additional transparency that would enable patients to make more informed decisions,” said Janssen group chairman **Scott White** in a [company release](https://www.jnj.com/our-company/what-cost-information-helps-patients-most-we-asked-them?ref=fdaweb.com).  

“Our approach to DTC TV ads,” White said, “builds on our strong support for [PhRMA’s revised advertising principles](https://www.phrma.org/codes-and-guidelines/direct-to-consumer-advertising-principles?ref=fdaweb.com). In accordance with these principles, member companies will direct patients to online information about the costs of medicines advertised on television. An important self-imposed industry standard, the principles reflect PhRMA member companies’ commitment to more transparency about medicine costs.”

White also said Janssen will provide later this quarter more up-to-date information about its “responsible business practices that put patients first, including how we invest our resources, price our medicines, and help people who need Janssen medicines get access to them, in our third annual *Janssen U.S. Transparency Report*.”

Meanwhile, the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) has called on the Administration to withdraw the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rule requiring to pricing disclosures in DTC television ads. [Comments](https://www.wlf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/12182018-WLF-Comment-to-CMS.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com) from the advocacy group say that CMS can only exercise the limited regulatory authority granted to it in laws approved by Congress. There is no law that authorizes CMS to require disclosure of list prices in DTC television ads, it says.

The comments also say that the proposal would violate the drug makers’ First Amendment right to speak truthfully about their products. “The First Amendment protects a speaker’s choices about both what to say and what not to say,” WLF declares. “And by compelling drug makers to speak a particular message in their DTC ads, the proposed rule seeks to alter the content of their speech.”