Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2229

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

Survey Finds DTC Ads Good for Communicating Basic Information
Reuters Health 2001 Nov 29

Full text:

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) Nov 29, 2001 – Direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs, particularly on television, is effective at prompting viewers to find out more about a medication or the condition it treats, but works less well for conveying information such as side-effect profiles, according to a new study.

“The ads were successful at giving basic information,” said Mollyann Brodie of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which conducted a study of how consumers responded to ads for three specific drugs. However, the ads “had more limited success giving other FDA-required information, like side effects and where to go for more information.”

DTC advertising has tripled since 1997, when the US Food and Drug Administration began to allow firms to advertise prescription drugs on television and radio as long as they followed certain guidelines, such as warning of any serious side effects and pointing consumers to ways to get more detailed information. According to the Kaiser Foundation’s Larry Levitt, drug companies spent $2.5 billion on direct-to-consumer ads in 2000.

The foundation polled a nationally-representative sample of people with a special internet service. Some 1,900 adults were shown three different ads: one for Pfizer’s cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium), one for AstraZeneca’s proton pump inhibitor Nexium (esomeprazole), and one for Merck’s asthma medication Singulair (montelukast sodium).

The survey found that those who saw the ads were better able than a pool of about 640 non-viewers to give correct answers to questions about the drug and the condition it treated. For example, while 71% of those who saw the ad for Singulair knew that there are pills people can take to reduce the number of asthma attacks they suffer, only 36% of non-viewers answered the question correctly.

But respondents were less able to recall other information from the ads. For example, only 34% were able to recall that Lipitor has not been shown to prevent heart attacks, and only 42% remembered that muscle pain or weakness is a potential side effect.

The survey also found that 30% of adults have at one point or another talked to their doctor about a drug they saw advertised, and that 44% of those consumers received a prescription for the drug. Thus, said Brodie, “one in eight Americans has gotten a prescription for a drug they saw advertised.”

Drug industry officials said the fact that the ads prompt consumers to consult with their doctors, even if they do not receive the drug, shows that direct-to-consumer advertising works. “Armed with information, patients have become more active partners with healthcare professionals in their own care,” said Christopher Molineaux, vice president of public affairs for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. “Prescription drug ads prompt people to talk to their doctor about either the health condition the drug is intended to treat, or the specific medication being advertised,” he said.

But Dr. Sharon Levine, associate executive director of the Permanente Medical Group, said she took away a more ominous message from the survey. She said that ads often “produce unrealistic expectations” in patients and force doctors to waste valuable office time “explaining why not,” meaning why an advertised drug may not be appropriate.

She also said that advertising newer, more expensive drugs that may be only equally as effective as existing medicines drives up costs for everyone. “The question is are we getting value for the dollars spent” on advertising, she said, “because we’re paying for this” through higher prices for drugs.