• by Ross Fadner , October 9, 2003

After years of unabated growth direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug ad spending appears to be leveling due to a flattening out of consumer response to DTC ads, a major pharmaceutical market research said Thursday.

In terms of consumer recall for prescription drug advertising and the proportion of consumers who actually take action because of prescription drug ads, response levels either remained stagnant or showed only a slight increase in the past year, according to findings of the report from Ipsos PharmTrends. Fifty-five percent of consumers reported having seen a prescription drug ad in the past year, a five percent increase over 2002, while 21% said that direct-to-consumer advertisements prompted them to call or visit their doctor to discuss the prescription drug they saw advertised.

"Prescription drug advertising has a bigger job to do than traditional consumer goods advertising," noted Fariba Zamaniyan, vice president of Ipsos PharmTrends.

She said prescription drug companies lack the traditional branding benefits of packaging and shelving, which necessarily puts greater pressure on delivering efficient, compelling direct-to-consumer marketing messages.

"Prescription drug marketers have realized, through experience, that they must step back and give DTC (direct-to-consumer) the scrutiny it deserves before embarking on a spending spree. Now that everyone's done it, its time to get better at it," she said.