Detailing vs. Direct-to-Consumer Advertising in the Prescription Pharmaceutical Industry

Detailing vs. Direct-to-Consumer Advertising in the Prescription Pharmaceutical Industry

Detailing versus Direct-To-Consumer Advertising in the Prescription Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is a very promotions intensive industry. This industry has always used sales representatives to target physicians, who are a key link in sales and market share for prescription pharmaceuticals. Since August of 1997 when the Food and Drug Administration eased the restrictions on Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), there has been a dramatic increase in the use of DT...

Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising

Types of Advertisements There are currently several types of DTC drug advertisements (Table 1).5,11 One type is the “help-seeking ad,” which provides only information about a medical condition and encourages patients to contact their physician but doesn’t mention a product.5,11 Another category is the “reminder ad,” which includes the product name; this type may provide information about streng...

Direct to consumer advertising in pharmaceutical markets.

We study effects of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) in the prescription drug market. There are two pharmaceutical firms providing horizontally differentiated (branded) drugs. Patients differ in their susceptibility to the drugs. If DTCA is allowed, this can be employed to induce (additional) patient visits. Physicians perfectly observe the patients' type (of illness), but rely on informat...

Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.