• Brandweek, Friday, December 29, 2006 11:15 AM

Big Pharma is looking to set another ad spending record, with drug marketers pushing budgets up by almost 9% over 2005. Total spending on all prescription drug brands should come in at $4.5 billion, according to TNS, up from $4.1 billion.

And the growth was driven by some familiar names, including Sepracor's insomnia drug Lunesta, which will probably grab the spending crown with $219 million ponied up through September of this year--a 78% jump.

Nielsen Monitor-Plus date indicates an even higher figure: $292 million for January through October, well over 2005's $227 million. Those numbers are especially dramatic because even at the lower level, Lunesta has the largest drug ad budget in the U.S.

And Pfizer's Viagra returned to its previous high-spending ways, spending $65 million through September, a 15% increase on last year. Pfizer had stopped advertising Viagra in late 2004 and early 2005 after complaints from the Food and Drug Administration about the quality of its ads.

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