Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16825

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: Journal Article

Direct-to-Consumer Offers for Free and Discounted Medications on the Internet: A Content Analysis of 'e-Samples'
Arch Intern Med 2009 Nov 23; 169:(21):2024-2030.
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/169/21/2024

Abstract:

The United States has witnessed dramatic changes in the marketing of prescription drugs over the past decade. From one perspective, patients, exposed to a dramatic increase in direct-to-consumer (DTC) promotion of prescription medications,1 are now “consumers” of health care. The pharmaceutical industry suggests that this promotion helps patients make more informed choices.2 However, observers have questioned the benefits of DTC marketing and the balance of associated risk and benefit information.3-4

As part of the 1997 decision to relax restrictions on broadcast advertisement of prescription drugs, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed advertisers to refer patients to Web sites for product labeling information.5 Indeed, the Internet has become a popular health care resource; 1 in 4 US citizens has searched it for prescription drug information6 and consumers consult it more frequently than their physicians.7 In a new type of marketing that capitalizes on the informational role of the Internet, manufacturers . . .