Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing Research Articles

The PBS community awareness campaign: how helpful is blaming patients?

The current "Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) community awareness campaign" explicitly links the difficulties facing the PBS to patient behaviour and "waste". The campaign suggests that patients are taking advantage of affordable access to prescription medicines, and emphasises that patient responsibility is "the prescription for a healthy PBS". By neglecting to inform the public that the pressures facing the PBS also include doctors' prescribing habits and intensive pharmaceutical industry marketing, the campaign has missed an opportunity to initiate a balanced and constructive debate about the future viability of the PBS.

Promoting Healthier Journalism

The media are often not rigorous in their coverage of health and medical issues, and have a tendency towards uncritical amplification of the claims of researchers, doctors and others, including commercial interests. Many journalists are not skilled at evaluating studies and research claims, and news values tend to be driven by factors other than the validity of research evidence. Media coverage of medicines tends to be overly promotional, highlighting the positives and often failing to mention the negatives. Media and public relations activities are a high priority in pharmaceutical industry marketing strategies. Tactics include: using medical opinion leaders and experts to raise awareness of diseases or treatments; generation of ‘new’ medical conditions to expand product markets; sponsorship of conferences; and even funding of journalism prizes. Critical reporting of health, medical and scientific issues could be promoted through appropriate education and workplace training.

The PhRMA Code: A New Roadmap for Industry-Physician Interactions

In April 2002, many pharmaceutical companies adopted PhRMA code, an attempt to self-regulate the pharmaceutical industry's marketing to physicians and other health care professionals. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.

A statistical analysis of the magnitude and composition of drug promotion in the United States in 1998

Background: Although pharmaceutical industry marketing and other factors may influence physician decisions regarding medication prescribing in the United States, little information is available about the composition of promotional efforts by promotional mode and medication class. Objectives: The aims of this study were to determine the magnitude of expenditures for common modes of promotion and to delineate patterns of promotional strategies for particular classes of medications. Methods: Nationally representative data on expenditures (in US $) for the 250 most promoted medications in the United States in 1998 were available from an independent pharmaceutical market research company for the 5 most commonly used modes of promotion. Key patterns of drug promotion were identified by descriptive statistics, a cluster analysis of expenditures by class, and an analysis of expenditure concentration. Results: In 1998, the pharmaceutical industry spent $12,724 million promoting its products in the United States, of which 85.9% was accounted for by the top 250 drugs and 51.6% by the top 50 drugs. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising was more concentrated on a small subset of medications than was promotion to professionals. Overall, 1998 expenditures were dominated by free drug samples provided to physicians (equivalent retail cost of $6602 million) and office promotion ($3537 million), followed by DTC advertising ($1337 million), hospital promotion ($705 million), and advertising in medical journals ($540 million). Four distinct patterns of expenditures were observed: promotion to office physicians with little consumer promotion (14 drug classes); dual focus on office physicians and consumer advertising (4 drug classes); predominant DTC advertising (1 class: smoking-cessation products); and promotion to office- and hospital-based professionals without consumer advertising (1 class: narcotic analgesics). Conclusions: The present findings reinforce the perception that the pharmaceutical industry invests heavily in promoting its products and demonstrates that promotional expenditures are concentrated on a small number of medications. Although promotion to professionals remains dominant, DTC advertising has become key for a subset of common medications

Student Understanding of the Relationship Between the Health Professions and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Background: Pharmaceutical sales representatives and direct-to-consumer advertising may influence physician practices, particularly prescribing. Identifying the relevant knowledge and attitudes students possess about the pharmaceutical industry may help professional curricula address these influences. Purposes: To assess knowledge and attitudes toward pharmaceutical industry marketing, ethical principles guiding drug company interactions, pharmaceutical sales representatives as a source of drug information, and confidence level in addressing consumers seeking a prescription from a direct-to-consumer advertisement among senior-level medical, PharmD, and nurse practitioner students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used to assess student knowledge and attitudes of four domains associated with the pharmaceutical industry. Results: Significant deficiencies were noted in student knowledge of pharmaceutical marketing expenditures, professional ethics regarding interactions with drug companies, and accuracy of drug information from sales representatives. Conclusions: Health professional students' knowledge and attitudes toward the pharmaceutical industry are formed prior to graduation. Professional curricula must address the influences of sales representatives before postgraduate training.

Using a clinical and evidence-based strategy to preserve access to psychiatric medications.

Using a clinical and evidence-based strategy to preserve access to psychiatric medications.

Economic evaluations of drug therapy: attitudes of primary care prescribing advisers in Great Britain

All health authorities in Great Britain have both medically or pharmaceutical qualified staff to advise both the authority and the local primary care medical practitioners about drug use and prescribing. This study used a piloted postal questionnaire to assess the attitudes of these advisers to economic evaluations of drug therapy, and their perceptions of the barriers to achieving cost effective prescribing by use of these evaluations. There was a 65% response rate to the questionnaire. Economic issues were rated by advisers to be less important than clinical issues, but were considered at most meetings between advisers and primary care medical practitioners. Advisers wished to consider true cost effective prescribing but often felt obliged to consider drug acquisition costs and risks of budgetary overspends. The perceived inflexibility of existing structures within the British National Health Service and the lack of credibility of the evaluations (often perceived as pharmaceutical industry marketing) were the major barriers to the application of the evaluations. The paper concludes that advisers were keen to use economic evaluations to promote cost effective prescribing but were impeded by the perceived bias of existing studies and by rigid current NHS structures.

Generic drugs: an alternative for the Brazilian market

The analysis of the main characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry worldwide and market aspects of that industry in Brazil leads us to consider a high share of external dependency and oligopolization. This situation is not peculiar to our country, but is rather a global trend. Recent Government initiatives in Brazil, aiming at reducing that dependency, associated with the critical aspects regarding the prices and costs of drugs as compared to international prices, are the background that support the proposal of evaluating generic drugs as an alternative for Brazilian market. One of the most striking aspect is the verification of overpricing of raw materials as demonstrated by "transfer prices", a practice that has been observed in several countries. Analysing international concepts dealing with generic drugs, generic names and pharmaceutical equivalence, based on World Health Organization recommendations and evaluating the experiences of different countries, several actions are proposed in order to gradually enforce a policy of generic drugs, bioequivalent and interchangeable, as a possible regulatory mechanisms for Brazil.

The Economics of Pharmaceutical Supply in Tanzania

This paper analyzes the patterns of purchasing, distribution, and utilization of pharmaceuticals currently found in Tanzania, an underdeveloped country in Africa. Like other nations in the Third World, Tanzania offers the prospect of a rapidly expanding market for the multinational pharmaceutical industry. However, this market has been to a large extent developed by the intense promotional activities of the drug companies themselves. In addition to normal marketing methods, these companies indulge in techniques which would be neither acceptable nor legal in developed countries. As a result, expensive proprietary drugs are overpurchased and overprescribed, mainly in the large urban hospitals, with consequent deprivation of other health care facilities, particularly those for the rural peasants who form the majority of the population. The activities of the multinational pharmaceutical companies in the Third World are therefore an important component in the continuing underdevelopment of health in these nations.

Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing as Part of an Undergraduate Pharmacy Administration Program

Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing as Part of an Undergraduate Pharmacy Administration Program