• by Masha Geller , January 16, 2003

There’s been a lot of talk lately about pharmaceutical advertising and how much influence drug marketers really have on both doctors and patients. A piece of research out today, useful as it may be in your next pitch, may add some fuel to the fire.

The results of the latest Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll show that American consumers have a fairly positive attitude toward drug marketers, mostly because they think advertising is not manipulating their doctors.

I must say that as a member of the ad industry, I refuse to believe that doctors are not at all influenced by ads, but as a consumer I truly hope that’s the case.

Be that as it may, according to Harris data, a clear majority (67%) of adult Americans trust their doctors to choose the best drugs for them. Similarly, 64% of respondents feel that doctors should decide for themselves whether or not to meet with pharmaceutical companies to learn of the benefits of their drugs, and 21% even prefer their doctors to meet with them.

On the other end of the spectrum, 8% prefer their doctors not meet with drug marketers and almost a quarter (23%) of those surveyed said their doctor may be too influenced by the pharmaceutical companies' marketing efforts.

When asked if pharmaceutical companies should be allowed to sponsor continuing education programs that are designed to help them describe the benefits of their drugs, almost three-quarters (72%) said that they should be allowed to do this. Only 11% said they should not be allowed, and 18% were not sure.

Overall – and this is the most important point for the purposes of this column - 25% of respondents said that they think pharmaceutical companies are much too aggressive and 30% said they are a little too aggressive in their marketing of drugs to doctors. Another quarter (26%) of respondents feel drug marketing by pharmaceutical companies is acceptable and reasonable. Bottom line here: if you’re a pharmaceutical advertisers, tread lightly.