Direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription pharmaceuticals: a good idea?

WARC Hot Topics are the essential guide to debates in and around marketing. This paper explores the key issues surrounding DTC pharma ads, with onward links to related papers on WARC and the Web.

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Pharmaceuticals - a good idea?

June 2003
DTC advertising is allowed currently in only two countries the USA and New Zealand and the vast majority of available experience comes, naturally, from the former. The US has allowed DTC advertising, under controls administered by the FDA, since the early 1980s, with a moratorium in 1983-5. However, it is only since 1997 that TV advertising has been practical, due to a reduction in FDA requirements for detailed information on side effects, etc, to be included in all ads. Since then, the volume of DTC advertising,...

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