> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.fdaweb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Rule on Price Info in DTC Ads ‘Illegal’: WLF
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/rule-on-price-info-in-dtc-ads-illegal-wlf/
- Published: 2018-08-29T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T00:28:44.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5142229

Washington Legal Foundation litigation division senior counsel **Cory Andrews** says the notion of including list prices in drug direct-to-consumer ads could not survive a First Amendment challenge and is outside of FDA’s regulatory authority. Writing in a *Forbes* online [column](https://www.forbes.com/sites/wlf/2018/08/27/fda-mandated-listing-of-drug-prices-in-ads-would-flunk-legal-and-aonstitutional-tests/?ref=fdaweb.com#5b8ffa0d6752), Andrews challenges the proposal that was raised earlier this year as part of a HHS blueprint to lower prescription drug prices. He notes that HHS secretary **Alex Azar** has invoked the idea and FDA commissioner **Scott Gottlieb** has said that an agency working group will soon study the idea.

“If that study includes a dispassionate legal and constitutional analysis,” Andrews writes, “the working group should recommend that HHS scrub the list-price mandate from its policy blueprint. Not only does FDA lack the statutory authority to impose the mandate, but even if it could legally do so, the regulation cannot survive a First Amendment challenge…. How prescription drugs are priced is an issue of great public importance. But the role government should play in drug pricing is open for debate. Whatever actions FDA regulators end up pursuing, curbing truthful, non-misleading speech about lawful products should always be the last resort.”