Snake Oil Salesmen or Purveyors of Knowledge: Off-Label Promotions and the Commercial Speech Doctrine

43 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2013 Last revised: 18 Mar 2013

See all articles by Constance E Bagley

Constance E Bagley

Copenhagen Business School

Joshua Mitts

Columbia Law School

Richard Tinsley

Delta Health Strategy Group LLC

Date Written: March 6, 2013

Abstract

The Second Circuit's December 2012 decision in United States v. Caronia striking down the prohibition on off-label marketing of pharmaceutical drugs has profound implications for economic regulation in general, calling into question the constitutionality of restrictions on the offer and sale of securities under the Securities Act of 1933, the solicitation of shareholder proxies and periodic reporting under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, mandatory labels on food, tobacco, and pesticides, and a wide range of privacy protections. In this Article we suggest that Caronia misconstrues the Court's holding in Sorrell v. IMS Health, which was motivated by concerns of favoring one industry participant over another rather than a desire to return to the anti-regulator fervor of the Lochner era. Reexamining the theoretical justification for limiting truthful commercial speech shows that a more nuanced approach to regulating off-label marketing with the purpose of promoting public health and safety would pass constitutional muster. We argue that as long as the government has a rational basis for subjecting a particular industry to limits on commercial speech intended to further a legitimate public interest rather than unfounded paternalism and does not discriminate against disfavored industry participants, those limits should be subject to intermediate scrutiny under the Central Hudson standard. Finally, we critique the FDA’s 2011 Draft Guidance for Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Off-Label Information and present a proposal for new rules for regulating the off-label marketing of pharmaceutical drugs based on transparency, the sophistication of the listener and the type of information offered, and the requirement that the pharmaceutical company comply with ongoing duties of training, monitoring, reporting, and auditing.

Keywords: FDA, off-label, commercial speech, First Amendment, Caronia, pharmaceutical, Sorrell

Suggested Citation

Bagley, Constance E and Mitts, Joshua and Tinsley, Richard, Snake Oil Salesmen or Purveyors of Knowledge: Off-Label Promotions and the Commercial Speech Doctrine (March 6, 2013). Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2229153 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2229153

Constance E Bagley

Copenhagen Business School ( email )

Solbjerg Plads 3
Frederiksberg C, DK - 2000
Denmark

Joshua Mitts (Contact Author)

Columbia Law School ( email )

435 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10025
United States

Richard Tinsley

Delta Health Strategy Group LLC ( email )

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20003
United States

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