Thompson v. Western States Medical Center
United States Supreme Court
535 U.S. 357 (2002)
The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 barred pharmacies that compound drugs -- combining or altering drugs to meet specific patients' needs -- from advertising or promoting any particular compounded drug combination, while still permitting advertising of the compounding service itself. Western States Medical Center and other compounding pharmacies (plaintiffs) advertised the effectiveness of certain drug combinations by mail and at medical conferences, and sued in federal court to enjoin enforcement of the advertising ban as an unconstitutional restriction on commercial speech.
Whether the provisions of the Food and Drug Administration and Modernization Act of 1997 that entirely ban the advertisement of compounded drugs violate First Amendment protections of commercial speech.