• Business Week, Friday, November 6, 2009 12:15 PM

Market research firm Verilogue listened to 12,500 conversations between patients and physicians and came to the conclusion that direct-to-consumer drug advertising, controversial as it may be, isn't all that effective. Bottom line: Those consumers who actually do ask their doctors about a drug, as the ads must suggest that they do, aren't asking by name or are likely to zero in on the side effects.

Verilogue has some suggestions about how pharmaceutical companies can make their marketing to consumers more effective. There's product placement in TV shows and movies, for one; educating doctors on side effects for another. The market researcher also says pharma firms have to do a better job of connecting with patients.

But Arlene Weintraub also talks with Milward Brown, whose own surveys find 50% of respondents reporting that they have requested drugs they've seen on TV or read about in a magazine. "More often than not, after someone sees an ad, they go on the Internet to get more information, so they can have an intelligent conversation about it with their doctor," Patrick Ryan, vp of Milward Brown's health care practice, tells her.

Richard Meyer, who writes the "World of DTC Marketing" blog, comments that the Verilogue study is "flawed in so many ways that its amazing that a publication like Business Week could buy into it." His conclusion: "We need DTC marketing, we just need it to be more relevant and transparent."

Read the whole story at Business Week »