[Ip-health] Drug Makers Raise Ad Spending

[Joana Ramos]

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http://online.wsj.com/services/article/SB116009186521384358-search.html?KEYWORDS=drug+prices&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month[1]

reprinted in   6 Oct.  Wall St. Journal:

Drug Makers Raise Ad Spending
Associated Press
October 6, 2006; Page B4

NEW YORK -- Pharmaceutical companies increased advertising spending by 9% in
the first half of this year, suggesting they no longer feel constrained by
complaints raised after the landmark withdrawal of the pain medicine Vioxx.

Spending rose to $2.46 billion in the six-month period as drug makers devoted
larger portions of their budgets to magazine ads and poured more funds into
campaigns to promote their images and disease awareness, according to TNS
Media Intelligence. In the first six months of 2005, spending was essentially
flat at $2.26 billion.

The Vioxx withdrawal in late 2004 cast a pall over pharmaceutical advertising
as critics claimed drug makers' splashy campaigns minimized medicines' risks.
Vioxx was a heavily advertised Merck[2] & Co. pain reliever that was found to
increase patients' risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Earlier this year, the pharmaceutical industry adopted voluntary guidelines to
improve the accuracy and balance of ads so the severity of drugs' side effects
aren't whitewashed. That is easier to accomplish in magazine ads so drug
makers are using that medium more frequently, Jon Swallen, research director
at TNS.

In the first six months of this year, magazines grabbed 34% of total spent
advertising drugs, up from 29% in the year-earlier period. Television ads
captured 59% of the ad budgets, down from 64% a year earlier. And newspapers
accounted for 3% of the total spending, essentially flat with the 2.9% in the
year-earlier period.



--
Joana Ramos, MSW
Cancer Resources & Advocacy
7303 23rd Ave. NE
Seattle, WA  98115
206-229-2420
http://ramoslink.info/[3]

===References:===
  1. http://online.wsj.com/services/article/SB116009186521384358-search.html?KEYWORDS=drug+prices&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month
  2. http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=mrk
  3. http://ramoslink.info/