Washington Legal Foundation issued the following press statement on September 11, 2025, on the Food and Drug Administration’s recent regulatory threats to DTC advertising:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services threatened pharmaceutical companies for having the temerity to advertise their products to consumers. FDA’s letter, which ominously warns thousands of recipient companies of vague “noncomplian[ce]” with federal law for their direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, is a blatant attempt to chill First Amendment-protected speech. FDA paired these unfriendly knocks on the door with warning letters to around 100 companies, announcing its plans for a speech-minimizing rulemaking.

There has been a recent groundswell among politicians to find ways to target pharmaceutical advertising. But as WLF’s senior litigation counsel Zac Morgan wrote in a recent WLF Legal Backgrounder, “[p]harmaceutical marketing, including DTC advertising, is protected by the First Amendment—full stop.”

WLF will continue to steadfastly oppose FDA efforts to silence constitutionally protected speech.