HIDDEN in PLAIN SIGHT Marketing Prescription Drugs to Consumers in the Twentieth Century

Greene, Jeremy A.; Herzberg, David

doi:10.2105/ajph.2009.181255

Cited by 70 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…As Jeremy Greene and David Herzberg have shown, drug companies employed public relations firms to ensure popular coverage of the latest prescription-only medications. 17 In the decades before direct-to-consumer advertising, American women received ample exposure to news about this contraceptive breakthrough, and they went to their physicians to ask for prescriptions for the Pill. By the late 1960s, almost nine million American women were taking oral contraceptives to prevent pregnancy.…”

Section: Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Phdmentioning

confidence: 99%

How the Pill Became a Lifestyle Drug: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Birth Control in the United States Since 1960

Watkins

2012

Am J Public Health

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Marketing decisions, rather than scientific innovations, have guided the development and positioning of contraceptive products in recent years. I review the stalled progress in contraceptive development in the decades following the advent of the Pill in 1960 and then examine the fine-tuning of the market for oral contraceptives in the 1990s and 2000s. Although birth control has been pitched in the United States as an individual solution, rather than a public health strategy, the purpose of oral contraceptives was understood by manufacturers, physicians, and consumers to be the prevention of pregnancy, a basic health care need for women. Since 1990, the content of that message has changed, reflecting a shift in the drug industry's view of the contraception business. Two factors contributed to bring about this change: first, the industry's move away from research and development in birth control and second, the growth of the class of medications known as lifestyle drugs.

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Section: Elizabeth Siegel Watkins Phdmentioning

confidence: 99%

How the Pill Became a Lifestyle Drug: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Birth Control in the United States Since 1960

Watkins

2012

Am J Public Health

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“…Although much attention has been focused on the relatively new phenomenon of advertisements for prescription drugs on television, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs have been advertised on television for a long time (Greene & Herzberg, 2010), and while watching television consumers may be exposed to twice as many advertisements for OTC drugs than for prescription drugs (Brownfield, Bernhardt, Phan, Williams, & Parker, 2004). However, research on OTC drug advertising is limited (DeLorme, Huh, Reid, & An, 2010), and the differences in how prescription and OTC products are promoted to consumers are largely unexplored.…”

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confidence: 99%

Now You See It. Now You Don't: Fair Balance and Adequate Provision in Advertisements for Drugs Before and After the Switch From Prescription to Over-the-Counter

Faerber

Kreling

2012

Health Communication

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The objective of this study was to measure differences in fair balance (benefit and risk statements) and adequate provision (toll-free numbers, Internet URLs, print ad references, and medical professional references) in advertising content for drugs that have switched from prescription to over-the-counter (OTC). The Vanderbilt TV News Archive was used to select products to study, to measure the frequency and placement of ads for those products, and to view advertising content for those products. Unique advertisements (n = 108) for loratadine (Claritin), citirizine (Zyrtec), and omeprazole (Prilosec) were analyzed for the presence of adequate provision statements and for the frequency of benefit, risk, and other statements. OTC ads were shorter than prescription ads by 10.6 seconds but contained the same total number of statements. Most prescription ads (n (RX) = 31) contained toll-free numbers (97%), Internet URLs (94%), medical professional references (100%) and print ad references (68%). Few OTC ads (n (OTC) = 77) contained adequate provision statements: 4% contained toll-free numbers and 10% contained Internet URLs. Prescription ads had similar numbers of benefits (1.5) and risks (1.8) per 30 seconds of ad time, and OTC ads had more benefits (6.6) than risks (1.2) per 30 seconds of ad time. Prescription drug ads contained risk statements that listed specific side effects and explicit harms from taking the product, but OTC ads contained nonspecific risk information and statements that implied risk rather than directly identifying risk. Differences in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulation of advertising affected the balance of risk and benefit information that appeared and the specificity of risk information available.

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“…Annual spending on DTCA has been more than twice the budget of the U.S. FDA throughout the past decade (41). Companies must submit advertisements to the FDA, but the volume doubled from 2002 to 2005 and the agency does not have the resources to examine most of these materials (105).…”

Section: Part Of a Broader Marketing Campaignmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advertising of Prescription-Only Medicines to the Public: Does Evidence of Benefit Counterbalance Harm?

Mintzes

2012

Annu. Rev. Public Health

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Since the global withdrawal of rofecoxib (Vioxx) in 2004, concerns about public health effects of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) have grown. A systematic review of the research evidence on behavioral, health, and cost effects, published in 2005, found four studies meeting inclusion criteria, which showed that DTCA increases prescribing volume and patient demand, and shifts prescribing. From 2005 to 2010, nine studies met similar criteria. These largely confirm previous results. Additional effects include a shift to less appropriate prescribing, differential effects by patient price sensitivity and drug type, switches to less cost-effective treatment, and sustained sales despite a price increase. Claimed effects on adherence do not stand up to scrutiny and are based mainly on negative trials. There is no evidence of improved treatment quality or early provision of needed care. If policy is to be informed by evidence, the strength of research methods and ability to assess causality need to be considered.

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HIDDEN in PLAIN SIGHT Marketing Prescription Drugs to Consumers in the Twentieth Century

Cited by 70 publications

References 10 publications

How the Pill Became a Lifestyle Drug: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Birth Control in the United States Since 1960

How the Pill Became a Lifestyle Drug: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Birth Control in the United States Since 1960

Now You See It. Now You Don't: Fair Balance and Adequate Provision in Advertisements for Drugs Before and After the Switch From Prescription to Over-the-Counter

Advertising of Prescription-Only Medicines to the Public: Does Evidence of Benefit Counterbalance Harm?

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