Trends

Contemporary Trends in Pharmaceutical Advertising

2006

Contemporary Trends in Pharmaceutical Advertising 1

The pharmaceutical industry has dramatically increased spending on marketing prescription drugs directly to consumers in recent years . Much of this increased spending has taken the form of television commercials While pharmaceutical firms have long devoted significant resources to marketing their products , their focus was for many years exclusively directed towards a learned intermediary - the physician who controls access to prescription medications . Direct appeals to consumers by prescription drug manufacturers via the print and broadcast media is a

new phenomenon in the health sector . A number of factors may be responsible for the increase in direct-to-consumer marketing , including greater involvement of patients in their health care and managed care plans efforts to reduce drug spending

Direct-to-consumer advertising has taken an increasingly important position in terms of public awareness of prescription drug products Surveys have shown that over 90 percent of the public reports seeing prescription drug advertisements . Consumer advocates and health insurers have raised concerns about the need for Food and Drug Administration (FDA ) regulation of prescription drug promotion and the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising on consumer behavior

Contemporary trends in pharmaceutical advertising

Today consumers who watch television programs and read popular magazines are bombarded by drug advertisements . These pharmaceuticals promise to cure a plethora of illnesses , ranging from allergies to depression . Historically , pharmaceutical companies were prevented from advertising directly to consumers . In 1997 , the Food and Drug Administration (FDA ) began to loosen its advertising restrictions , and direct-to consumer ' marketing gained

popularity among pharmaceutical companies

Contemporary Trends in Pharmaceutical Advertising 2

Not enough research has been conducted to determine whether this deregulation has had a positive or negative impact on consumer health

Beginning in 1997 the FDA allowed pharmaceutical companies to market directly to consumers . Pharmaceutical advertisements increased exponentially after this deregulation . Prior 1997 0 was spent on direct to consumer marketing . In 2001 alone 2 .5 billon was spent on this type of marketing (Teinowitz , 2002

Currently , a concern exists that direct-to-consumer (DTC ) marketing is not in the consumer 's best interest . Physicians report feeling pressured by their patients to prescribe medications that may not be appropriate for the medical condition being treated . In 2000 , 66 .1 of patients who visited a physician were given a prescription , according to the National Center of Health Statistics . This statistic is alarming considering the short duration of patient-physician office visits

DTC marketing has been proven effective in stimulating drug sales For example , increases in sales of the 50 most heavily advertised drugs made up almost half of the 21 billion growth from 1999 to 2000 (National Institute for Health Care Management , 2000 ) The amount of prescriptions for these 50 drugs increased by 25 from 1999 to 2000 while the increase by all the other drugs combined was 4 .3 (National Institute for Health Care Management , 2000

With such an increase in popularity , the FDA is finding the task of monitoring all DTC advertisements more challenging . The FDA requires that drug advertisements...