• by Wayne Friedman , April 17, 2020

With COVID-19 issues on the mind of TV consumers, pharmaceutical marketers have seen nearly 30% higher TV impressions from TV ad spending for the most recent monthly period -- all this against flat TV spending.

Some 46.4 billion viewing impressions were seen from March 9 through April 5 for pharmaceutical marketers -- up from 36.2 billion impressions over the same period in 2019, according to iSpot.tv.

The most recent month-long period was also up 12% from a total of 41.3 billion in the previous period -- from Feb. 10 through March 8.

This comes as overall TV ad spending for the pharmaceutical/medical category has shown virtually no change before and after the COVID-19 crisis and was slightly down in the most recent period versus a month ago -- down 2% to $547.4 million for overall pharmaceutical national TV spending in the most recent month versus $559.9 million a year ago.

The biggest pharmaceutical/medical category over the recent period is Osteoporosis/arthritis medications, at $72.8 million from March 18 to April 16 (up from $66.8 million a year ago), followed by allergies/cold/flu medication at $59.6 million (up slightly from $58.8 million), over-the-counter pain relief drugs, $51.3 million ($35.4 million a year ago) and immune disease medications at $27.7 million (down from $37.5 million).

The most active major pharmaceutical brands continue to be Humira, Trulicity, Rinvoq, Xeljanz, and Otezla.