• Ad Age, Thursday, March 5, 2009 10:45 AM

Despite lower marketing spending, IMS Health data show sales of major prescription sleeping-pill brands rose 7% last year while branded antidepressant prescriptions jumped 15%, Rich Thomaselli reports.

According to figures from TNS Media Intelligence, spending on sleep-aid Ambien CR fell from $190 million in 2007 to $150 million in 2008 while outlays on Lunesta plunged to $107 million in 2008 from $271 the prior year. Rozerem cut spending by $100 million from $140 million in '07. The cutbacks were less clear-cut for antidepressants. Spending on Cymbalta was flat at $179 million in 2008 but spending on Effexor fell by more than half from $21.2 million in 2007 to $9.8 million last year.

Some 31% of respondents to a "Sleep In America" poll by the National Sleep Foundation say they are losing sleep over the dismal economy and their own financial situation. "There are worries about the economy and that can certainly lead to insomnia ... so, yeah, it certainly makes sense that the [prescription] numbers would be up," says Amy Wolfson, a professor at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and one of five members of the poll taskforce.

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