WASHINGTON – You see them during television news and hear them on other programs multiple times per day: advertisements for prescription drugs for everything from diabetes control and maintenance, to skin treatments and arthritis relief. On Wednesday, Iowa 3rd District Representative Cindy Axne introduced legislation that would end taxpayer subsidies for prescription drug advertisements targeted at American consumers by big pharmaceutical companies. Under current law, drug manufacturers are allowed to deduct the cost of advertising expenses from federal taxes, meaning taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize drug advertisements.

According to Axne, “Iowans are paying more than ever for their prescription drugs while giant pharmaceutical companies clear record profits in part by exploiting loopholes in our tax code to flood our airwaves with T.V. ads subsidized by Iowa tax dollars. This is unacceptable and insulting to the Iowans who tell me at every town hall I hold, the incredible lengths they are going to just to afford their medications.”  Axne says she’s joining with Congresswoman Slotkin, of Michigan, and Congressman Trone, from Maryland, “to introduce legislation that will cut off these tax breaks for drug companies and stop my constituents’ tax dollars from funding the never-ending carousel of prescription ads on their televisions.”

The No Tax Breaks for Drug Ads Act would prohibit any tax deduction for direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising, thereby making sure that taxpayer money isn’t being used to subsidize drug ads. The bill would cover any ad that refers to a prescription drug product and is primarily targeted to the general public, including through journals, magazines, newspapers, broadcast media such as radio and television, and digital platforms such as social media and web applications.

DTC advertising expenses by pharmaceutical companies have more than quadrupled over the past two decades, rising from $1.3 billion in 1997 to $6 billion in 2016. In that same time period, advertising from drug companies has increased from 79,000 ads to 4.6 million ads, including 663,000 TV commercials. Margarida Jorge, Campaign Director for Lower Drug Prices Now, call the tax breaks for drug companies “…corporate welfare of the worst kind.”

The Senate companion of this bill was introduced by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).