Do Negative DTC Ads Improve a Drug's Efficacy viz-a-viz the Competition? Another Lesson Pharma Can Learn from Politics

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) -- of all places -- suggests that watching a direct-to-consumer (DTC) ad makes the advertised pill "more effective." DTC advertising is often defended by the drug industry as beneficial to the public's health because it motivates people to visit their doctors (see, for example, "Rethinking the Value of DTC Advertising"). PhRMA, the US drug industry trade organization, says in its DTC Guiding Principles:"DTC advertising of prescription medicines can benefit the public health by increasing awareness about diseases, educating patients about treatment options, motivating patients to contact their physicians and engage in a dialogue about health concerns, increasing the likelihood that patients will receive appropriate care for conditions that are frequently under-diagnosed and under-treated, and encouraging compliance with prescription drug treatment regimens."Even the staunchest proponents of DTC, however, have never claimed that DTC ads can increase the efficacy of the advertised drugs!“Every day, we are exposed to a high number of advertising messages,” says economist Emir Kamenica of the University of Chicago, first author of the new paper. “And these messages may influence not only whether we buy a product, but also how our body works." Here's a synopsis of the study and results published in PNAS First Look Blog (here):Kamenica and his colleagues studied 340 people, some with known allergi...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Zyrtec Claritin DTC Advertising Source Type: blogs