In the pharmaceutical area, DTC advertising has been increasing in the late 1990s at a rate of around 30 percent compounded annually. Once prevented by regulation from advertising aggressively, pharmaceutical companies now see DTC advertising as a major source of stimulating demand for their product; they spent $1.3 billion on DTC advertising in 1998 alone. This has had two key effects: (1) it has built brand awareness and product awareness in the minds of end users (consumers), who are increasingly taking medications for chronic conditions in increasingly crowded and competitive therapeutic categories—cholesterol management, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, allergy, and other forms of respiratory ailments; and (2) more directly, it has encouraged users to visit their doctors and ask for the product by name.Health Care in the New Millennium by Ian Morrison, page 44
In order to reach the widest audience possible, drug companies are no longer just targeting medical doctors with their message about antidepressants. By 1995 drug companies had tripled the amount of money allotted to direct advertising of prescription drugs to consumers. The majority of the money is spent on seductive television ads.Death By Medicine by Gary Null PhD, page 13
In 2000, pharmaceutical companies spent $2.5 billion on mass media ads for prescription drugs. Admittedly, this is a small portion of the $101.6 billion spent on advertising of mainstream consumer products in the United States.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 75
The stage could not have been set more perfectly for prescription drug advertising to become a major force in American medicine. And so it did. In 1991 the drug companies spent a paltry $55 million on advertising drugs directly to consumers. Over the next 11 years, this increased more than 50-fold to over $3 billion in 2003. The ads appeal to viewers as independent decision makers—capable of forming their own opinions about which drugs they need—and resonate with the growing concern that HMOs and managed care plans tend to withhold the best care to save money.Overdosed America by John Abramson MD, page 81
While $3 billion in advertising may seem like an awful lot, rest assured that the drug companies aren't worried. Why? Americans are expected to spend over $500 billion on drugs this year—not including the extra $100 billion estimated for the Medicare drug benefit program. Spending on prescription drugs is now the fastest growing portion of healthcare spending in the United States.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 176
Many of us don't find the amount of money spent on marketing prescription drugs to physicians surprising, but when considering the billions of dollars spent on marketing prescription drugs to the public, don't you wonder why? After all, you can obtain prescriptions only through a doctor. Pharmaceutical companies are willing to spend this kind of advertising money on only their most recently approved medication.Death By prescription by Ray D Strand, page 48
The average number of prescriptions per person in the United States increased from 7.3 in 1992 to 10.4 in 2000. Along with this increase in demand, there has been a shift toward the use of more expensive medications. It's more than a coincidence that many of the most expensive medications happen to be those medications that are most heavily advertised.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 77
According to a report prepared by the National Institute for Health Care Management, a nonprofit research foundation created by the Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance plans, the fifty most-advertised prescription medicines contributed significantly last year to the increase in the nation's spending on drugs. The increases in the sales of the fifty drugs that were most heavily advertised to consumers accounted for almost half the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, according to the study. The remainder of the spending increase came from 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise, or advertised very little. The study attributed the spending increase to a boost in the number of prescriptions for the fifty drugs, and not from a rise in their price.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 77
Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make money; with the exception of over-the-counter medications that will be sold in great numbers, the only way a pharmaceutical company can make lots of money is by developing medications that can be patented. Natural herbs and foods as well as medications that can no longer be patented won't be "pushed" in advertising because there's no real money to be made on them.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 11
Not surprisingly the "super aspirin" have received lots of favorable press on the TV since there's money to be made. With the dollars pharmaceutical companies make, translating into greater advertising revenues for broadcasters and publishers, the rush is push the super aspirin and play up the "dangers" of common aspirin.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 13
The cheap-but-effective medications that can't be patented are also kept out of the limelight by the big companies paying for advertising and the mass media intent on making money through advertising.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 19
When you go into a pharmacy to get a prescription filled, you can often pay considerably less by choosing a "generic" drug over a brand name. The generic drugs are often made by the same manufacturer as the name-brand medication — the extra price is in the packaging and advertising. Even when a different company makes the generic medication, it is every bit as good as the brand name because it is required to meet certain standards before it can be sold in the US.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 183
In contrast, most physicians are unaware of the considerable risks and limited benefits of commonly used prescription cholesterol-lowering agents. In addition, since niacin is a widely available "generic" agent, no pharmaceutical company stands to generate the huge profits that the other lipid-lowering agents have enjoyed. As a result, niacin does not enjoy the intensive advertising that the HMG CoA reductase inhibitors and gemfibrozil enjoy. Despite the advantages of niacin over other lipid-lowering drugs, niacin accounts for only 7.9 percent of all lipid-lowering prescriptions
In order to reach the widest audience possible, drug companies are no longer just targeting medical doctors with their message about antidepressants. By 1995 drug companies had tripled the amount of money allotted to direct advertising of prescription drugs to consumers. The majority of the money is spent on seductive television ads.Death By Medicine by Gary Null PhD, page 13
In 2000, pharmaceutical companies spent $2.5 billion on mass media ads for prescription drugs. Admittedly, this is a small portion of the $101.6 billion spent on advertising of mainstream consumer products in the United States.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 75
The stage could not have been set more perfectly for prescription drug advertising to become a major force in American medicine. And so it did. In 1991 the drug companies spent a paltry $55 million on advertising drugs directly to consumers. Over the next 11 years, this increased more than 50-fold to over $3 billion in 2003. The ads appeal to viewers as independent decision makers—capable of forming their own opinions about which drugs they need—and resonate with the growing concern that HMOs and managed care plans tend to withhold the best care to save money.Overdosed America by John Abramson MD, page 81
While $3 billion in advertising may seem like an awful lot, rest assured that the drug companies aren't worried. Why? Americans are expected to spend over $500 billion on drugs this year—not including the extra $100 billion estimated for the Medicare drug benefit program. Spending on prescription drugs is now the fastest growing portion of healthcare spending in the United States.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 176
Many of us don't find the amount of money spent on marketing prescription drugs to physicians surprising, but when considering the billions of dollars spent on marketing prescription drugs to the public, don't you wonder why? After all, you can obtain prescriptions only through a doctor. Pharmaceutical companies are willing to spend this kind of advertising money on only their most recently approved medication.Death By prescription by Ray D Strand, page 48
The average number of prescriptions per person in the United States increased from 7.3 in 1992 to 10.4 in 2000. Along with this increase in demand, there has been a shift toward the use of more expensive medications. It's more than a coincidence that many of the most expensive medications happen to be those medications that are most heavily advertised.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 77
According to a report prepared by the National Institute for Health Care Management, a nonprofit research foundation created by the Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance plans, the fifty most-advertised prescription medicines contributed significantly last year to the increase in the nation's spending on drugs. The increases in the sales of the fifty drugs that were most heavily advertised to consumers accounted for almost half the $20.8 billion increase in drug spending last year, according to the study. The remainder of the spending increase came from 9,850 prescription medicines that companies did not advertise, or advertised very little. The study attributed the spending increase to a boost in the number of prescriptions for the fifty drugs, and not from a rise in their price.Ephedra Fact And Fiction by Mike Fillon, page 77
Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make money; with the exception of over-the-counter medications that will be sold in great numbers, the only way a pharmaceutical company can make lots of money is by developing medications that can be patented. Natural herbs and foods as well as medications that can no longer be patented won't be "pushed" in advertising because there's no real money to be made on them.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 11
Not surprisingly the "super aspirin" have received lots of favorable press on the TV since there's money to be made. With the dollars pharmaceutical companies make, translating into greater advertising revenues for broadcasters and publishers, the rush is push the super aspirin and play up the "dangers" of common aspirin.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 13
The cheap-but-effective medications that can't be patented are also kept out of the limelight by the big companies paying for advertising and the mass media intent on making money through advertising.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 19
When you go into a pharmacy to get a prescription filled, you can often pay considerably less by choosing a "generic" drug over a brand name. The generic drugs are often made by the same manufacturer as the name-brand medication — the extra price is in the packaging and advertising. Even when a different company makes the generic medication, it is every bit as good as the brand name because it is required to meet certain standards before it can be sold in the US.Attaining Medical Self Efficiency An Informed Citizens Guide by Duncan Long, page 183
In contrast, most physicians are unaware of the considerable risks and limited benefits of commonly used prescription cholesterol-lowering agents. In addition, since niacin is a widely available "generic" agent, no pharmaceutical company stands to generate the huge profits that the other lipid-lowering agents have enjoyed. As a result, niacin does not enjoy the intensive advertising that the HMG CoA reductase inhibitors and gemfibrozil enjoy. Despite the advantages of niacin over other lipid-lowering drugs, niacin accounts for only 7.9 percent of all lipid-lowering prescriptions
