Miami

Researchers say TV viewers tune out drug commercials

Expensive drug commercials are often a waste of money, cause repulsed viewers to channel surf and leave many with the impression that the ads are a big reason for high drug prices.

That’s what participants were told this week at a health care summit in Miami presented by Forrester Research, a business advisory group.

A Forrester poll found that commercial viewers are as likely to remember a drug’s side effects as they are its benefits. What’s more, the commercials which often deal with distasteful body conditions are the most likely to cause viewers to start clicking to other stations, the poll showed.

The upshot is that turned-off consumers start thinking about the cost of the ads and how much they add to the soaring prices of pharmaceutical drugs.

Forrester reports that from 1996 to 2000, direct-to-consumer drug advertising climbed 352 percent, to $2.5 billion.

A study by the National Institute of Health Care Management found that the 50 most heavily advertised drugs accounted for almost half of the $21 billion increase in drug sales in 1999 and 2000. The other half was due to 9,800 other drugs.

Jerusalem

Israeli troops return to West Bank town

Israeli troops early today entered the West Bank town of Jenin in an operation linked to a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 17 people earlier this week, the military said.

The violent Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the Monday bombing, naming two teenagers from Jenin as the attackers. They blew up a car filled with about 220 pounds of explosives next to a bus, destroying the bus in a fiery blast.

Israeli forces had pulled out of Jenin just a few days earlier, after a three-month occupation. After a series of suicide bombing attacks in June, Israeli sent troops into most of the main West Bank towns and cities.

United Nations

Security Council to review U.S. resolution on Iraq

Russia on Thursday warned that putting the new U.S. resolution on Iraq to a quick vote would be “counterproductive” and France said it was “very important” to hear whether U.N. weapons inspectors believe they can operate under its provisions.

In a move to spur U.N. action, the United States introduced a seven-page draft resolution Wednesday to the full 15-member Security Council after six weeks of difficult negotiations by the five veto-wielding permanent members.

The permanent members the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain remain divided over language in the U.S. draft that Moscow, Paris and Beijing believe could trigger military action against Iraq, and over tough new rules for inspections.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Jean-David Levitte said the full council would go through the text paragraph by paragraph today to give members a chance to comment. He said the council asked chief weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohammed El-Baradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency to brief members on Monday to hear their views on the U.S. text.