logo

Has prescription drug advertising increased massively in recent decades?

Monday, November 30, 2020
By Esther Honig
YES

Advertising for prescription medicines aimed directly at patients, as opposed to health care professionals, has increased massively over the last two decades. This is due in part to regulations introduced in 1997 by the Food and Drug Administration making it easier for drug companies to advertise on television and radio.

Estimates of how much industry spending has increased vary, depending on how expenditures for advertising are determined. A study by the Southern Economic Journal found that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs increased from $150 million in 1993 to more than $4 billion in 2010, a nearly 30-fold increase. By 2016, another study by two Dartmouth doctors estimated consumer ad spending was up to $6 billion—out of a total pharmaceutical industry marketing spend of $29.9 billion, much of which is still directed at prescribing doctors.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
FACT BRIEF BY
facebook
twitter
email
email