President Donald Trump is aiming to ramp up scrutiny on pharmaceutical ads — both on TV and social media — as his administration accuses companies of misleading the public about medications and their side effects.

A directive Trump signed Tuesday tasks the US Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies with greater enforcement of existing regulations governing direct-to-consumer drug advertising that administration officials say companies have increasingly flouted in recent years.

In another potentially significant move, the order also instructs the US Food and Drug Administration to craft new regulations that would effectively eliminate a decades-old provision that officials have blamed for fueling an explosion of drug ads on television and elsewhere.

It’s another attemp

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