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Thank goodness for a Congressional committee looking into misleading pharmaceutical ads to detail the shady saga that is pseudo-jock Dr. Jarvik.
You know Jarvik from the Lipitor ads: late 50s, receding hairline, cornerstone of Pfizer’s $258 million cholesterol-lowering campaign. Apparently he’s a fraud. Well, when it comes to rowing.
We became suspicious of Dr. Jarvik the moment the ad with him jogging with his robotically stiff son came out. "These guys don’t jog," we thought. His son doesn’t even move his arms when he runs. Nothing screams "not a real athlete" like somebody who awkwardly runs with their arms at their side.
Dr. Jarvik didn’t look the part of the outdoorsman and his goofy son certainly didn’t help sell the image of the healthy Lipitor lifestyle to anybody but the most desperate of cholesterol-fearing crowd.
So the NY Times revelation that the rowing scenes in his commercial were actually performed by a stunt double sculler on Washington’s Lake Crescent near Port Angeles caught nobody at Seattlest by surprise. Coupled with the fact Dr. Jarvik isn't a cardiologist or even licensed to practice medicine, we're beginning to wonder if anything about Lipitor is legit.
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The US is one of two countries in the world where direct-to-consumer advertising by drug companies is legal…. and we are bombarded by them. The newest drugs are the ones that are the most heavily advertised, and yet the least is known about their safety. If we have to watch an endless stream of half-celebrities telling us to “ask your doctor about…” then the ads should at least give consumers some real information we can use. That’s why Consumers Union is petitioning the FDA to require drug companies to include a 1-800 number and web address in all drug ads on TV so consumers know where to report serious side effects. The easier it is for us to report side effects, the earlier the FDA can detect safety problems with a drug. Add your name to the petition now at www.PrescriptionForChange.org.