This is the one the pharma industry is going to fight it like crazy.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King just introduced the End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act, a bill that would ban direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising across TV, radio, print, digital, and social media. No more “Ask your doctor about…” while a couple walks through a meadow as horrendous side effects whisper in the background.
This would be massive. The United States and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow drug companies to advertise directly to consumers.
In 2024 alone, Big Pharma spent $5B on television ads. And in just the first three months of 2025, they dropped $750M promoting only ten drugs. Among them? The GLP-1 juggernauts. Novo Nordisk spent $263M on Wegovy ads and another $208M on Ozempic. Americans are paying the highest prices on earth and being sold the illusion that it was their idea in the first place.
it all begs the question, “How can we ever know? We are getting straight information from our media when it is largely funded and propped up by big Pharma spending?”
But here’s what makes this moment different. It is not just Bernie out on a limb anymore.
RFK Jr., now leading Health and Human Services, has been vocal about ending direct to consumer drug ads. He wants this stopped. On another matter involving cost of Rx drugs, over in the House, Representative Ro Khanna of California just introduced a bill to codify Trump’s executive order tying US drug prices to international rates.
That is not just momentum. That could be the beginning of real consensus.
This is one of those rare moments in American politics where you can feel something shift. If this passes, it does not just change how drugs are advertised. It changes how healthcare is sold in this country.
We will be watching it all closely at On The Pen.
What do you think? Should we ban drug ads for good?
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