Pharmaceutical promotion and First Amendment rights.

Abstract

Kesselheim and Avorn (April 17 issue)¹ dramatically understate the robust, sound constitutional protection the U.S. Supreme Court affords truthful, nonmisleading commercial communication such as that embodied in reprints of scientific articles discussing off-label uses.^2-4 Their suggestion that physicians need protection from the very journal articles they receive through subscription or library services is utterly at odds with the Court's forceful rejection of government paternalism.