Does Direct-to-Consumer Advertising Directly Harm Patients?

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University recently published an article in JAMA that highlights rising concern around the effects of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC) on health care. Their work shows that DTC advertising might have direct harm on patients. They studied drug characteristics and total advertising expenditures for the 150 top-selling branded prescription drugs in the United States, finding that total promotional spending by the manufacturer was associated with a significantly lower added clinical benefit for the drug. In fact, companies spent nearly 15% more on DTC advertising for drugs that had demonstrated lower added benefit. Even more troubling, each 1.5% increase in spending was associated with a 10% increase in sales. Simply put, pharmaceutical companies spent more money on DTC advertising when medical research found that the drug was less effective, and this spending directly led to more sales for those inferior drugs. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] As the U.S. is one of only two countries in the world that still allows direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, it is important to understand the implications of DTC on patients and society at large. Aside from the fact that millions of dollars are annually spent on DTC prescription drug advertising, numerous previous studies have demonstrated that this practice has tangible impacts on prescription rates and patient requests for particular drugs. Pharmaceutical companies appear to be allocating ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized freelance health Source Type: news