Impact of DTCA on Patient Behaviour

In the late nineties, the US FDA loosened restrictions on branded promotional advertising of drugs to consumers, leading to a 200% rise in activity over the last six years. This has resulted in increased awareness not only of brands but also of symptoms of illness, and the need to follow drug regimens, according to Rx and OTC purchase tracking service Ipsos PharmTrends(r).

The impact of DCTA is perhaps most evident with specific classes of product like Viagra, or allergy products, but prescription drug ads have many other subtle but important effects, according to Ipsos - this includes encouraging patients who suffer from chronic conditions to become more compliant with their drug regimen, and helping to make Americans more aware of certain disease symptoms, as well as potential drug treatment options.

'Study results indicate that DTCA reminds consumers to take their medication and refill their prescriptions, thereby creating a 'call to compliance'', according to Arindam Mukherjee, Senior Research Analyst at Ipsos-Insight, of which PharmTrends is a division. 'Increased drug compliance should be making Americans healthier, but the full impact of DTCA on patient behavior and health, however, can be difficult to measure. Further investigation is necessary to measure the full effects of DTCA - isolated from other factors, such as an ageing population, increased prescription drug coverage, and drug marketing to healthcare professionals'.

Mukherjee points out that manufacturers and marketers can use ongoing analysis to 'identify opportunities (for example, the impact of scripts on compliance), offer diagnostics to help focus marketing efforts (such as answering whether sampling affects compliance in a particular class) ... and evaluate promotional spending'. However, as above, analysis must take account of the effect of other major factors too: demographic changes like population ageing and the increase in insurance coverage (from 25% of the total national prescription billing in 1990 to 44% in 2000) are two of the most obvious.

For all its recent rise, DTCA remains the junior player in prescription drug marketing. Pharmaceutical manufacturers continue to focus their promotional spending on marketing to physicians and other healthcare professionals, spending an estimated $16.4 billion on sampling and detailing to doctors in 2001 alone.

The complete report, 'Compliance Through Direct-to-Consumer Advertising' can be viewed at www.ipsos-ideas.com/articles/vol4-6.cfm

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

• Ipsos-Insight USA
• All news