Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1676
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Drug companies are increasingly targeting patients
Associated Press 2002 Feb 14
Full text:
TV viewers are right if they are feeling barraged by commercials for the likes of Vioxx, Prilosec, Claritin and Viagra: Drug company advertising aimed at ordinary people instead of doctors tripled in the United States between 1996 and 2000 to nearly $2.5 billion a year.
Advertisements targeting consumers account for 15% of U.S. spending to promote medications, up from almost 9% in 1996, a study found.
Spending that targets doctors – including visits from sales representatives, free samples and medical journal ads – slipped from 91% to 84% during the same period, according to researchers at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
They analyzed data on media advertising and sales of individual drugs, examining trends since 1996, the year before the Food and Drug Administration issued rules for television ads on prescription drugs.
The study appears in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
Critics such as Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen Health Research Group argue that drug ads aimed at ordinary people encourage use of expensive, sometimes unnecessary medicines, appeal to patients’ emotions, undermine the doctor-patient relationship and rarely tell patients about the drugs’ success rate, alternative treatments and other key information.
The pharmaceutical industry argues the ads inform and empower consumers, prompt many to see their doctor about an untreated health problem and nudge others to take their prescription drugs more faithfully.
The researchers found the biggest jump has been in TV commercials, with a seven-fold increase in spending – from $220 million to $1.6 billion – between 1996 and 2000.
Sixty% of the print and broadcast ads were for just 20 medications, including the arthritis drugs Vioxx and Celebrex, the ulcer drug Prilosec, Viagra for impotence and the allergy drugs Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec.
Total spending on prescription drug promotion grew about 70%, from about $9.2 billion in 1996 to $15.7 billion in 2000, the same rate of growth as drug sales had during that period.
The 20 medications focused on, their purpose, and 2000 ad spending:
1. Vioxx, arthritis, $161 million
2. Prilosec, stomach ulcers, $108 million
3. Claritin, antihistamine, $100 million
4. Paxil, antidepressant, $92 million
5. Zocor, high cholesterol, $91 million
6. Viagra, impotence, $90 million
7. Celebrex, arthritis, $79 million
8. Flonase, nasal spray for allergies, $78 million
9. Allegra, antihistamine, $67 million
10. Meridia, weight loss, $65 million
11. Flovent, asthma, $63 million
12. Pravachol, high cholesterol, $62 million
13. Zyrtec, antihistamine, $60 million
14. Singulair, asthma, $59 million
15. Lipitor, high cholesterol, $59 million
16. Nasonex, nasal allergies, $53 million
17. Ortho Tri-Cyclen, oral contraceptive, $47 million
18. Valtrex, genital herpes, $40 million
19. Lamisil, toenail fungus, $39 million
20. Prempro, hormone for osteoporosis, menopause symptoms, $38 million
Source: Competitive Media Reporting
