CNN admitted Wednesday policies to limit pharmaceutical TV advertising that are being considered by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could cripple the TV news business.
The policies, which include a plan to remove a loophole allowing pharmaceutical companies to write off advertising as a tax deduction, could “leave broadcasters in financial straits,” CNN reported in a Wednesday article.
…..The loophole currently costs taxpayers over $1 billion annually, according to a March analysis from the Campaign for Sustainable RX Pricing (CSRxP).
That same study found that pharmaceutical giants spent over $5 billion on TV advertisements in 2024.
Congress has joined Kennedy Jr. in putting DTC advertising on the chopping block. In April a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced the No Handouts for Drug Advertisements Act, which would end the loophole allowing advertisers to claim the ads as tax write-offs.
Pharmaceutical commercials make up a significant portion of primetime news advertisements. Drugmakers accounted for nearly a quarter of ad minutes across the evening blocks on MSNBC, Fox News, NBC, ABC, CNN and CBS, according to an iSpot analysis reported by Yahoo News.
