Hattie WebsterHattie Webster
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(c) 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Researchers focused on ads for three drugs. The aciclovir acyclovir medication prescription site encourages consumers to keep sleeping pills an eye out for false or misleading ads and provides a boote to report violators. Enbrel (for rheumatoid arthritis), Nasonex (nasal allergies) and Zelnorm (irritable bowel syndrome). It 24 hour pharmacy launched a "Be Smart about Prescription Drug Advertising" area online at. Results sho that direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads "probably aren't as effective as widely perceived," says Moritz Law, lead That bodes ill for the magazines, sleeping pills newspapers and radio and TV outlets for which the ads have been a prescription order antibiotics online for filthy lucre. By Laura Petrecca NEW YORK -- This could make media owners sick. Some major brands, such as rozerem drug Pfizer's Lipitor, have revamped ads under government pressure. "Throughout much of the early decade, it was growing at strong double-digit rates as pharmaceutical marketers become more comfortable and experienced with DTC advertising," says Jon Swallen, TNS senior vice president of research. $175million in that quarter in 2007. Second-quarter rozerem for sleep spending in magazines fell 29% to $358million, according to TNS, while radio plummeted 62% to $4million. Those declines are an abrupt radical change from the robust spending growth of a few years ago. Among factors driving the drop, he says, are fewer drug launches, fear of government rozerem for sleep regulation and cuts by a few brands that had spent big. A service of YellowBrix, Inc.. Rival ad tracker Nielsen Monitor-Plus calculates the decline at 4.8% to $2.7 billion. TNS Media Intelligence puts the drop at 3.9% to $2.4 billion. Pharmaceutical ad spending they count on to exceed $5 billion a year is losing its potency. "The pharmaceutical companies perceive the threat of government regulation on marketing to be a stronger threat now than it has been in the past," and are trying to self-regulate, Swallen says. Sepracor's Lunesta, an insomnia drug known for its scarlet moth icon, spent $75million on ads in the first quarter of 2008 vs. And it comes as they already are dealing with large spending declines in some other major ad categories, such as automotive and telecommunications, and recession fears, thanks to the crisis on Wall Street. Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America's Rozerem sleep aid, which used offbeat ad characters such as Jermaine Milo and a beaver, cut spending from $91million in the first half of 2007 to $15million in the first half this year. That if the government gets involved, they'll be worse off." Last month, the Food and Drug Administration stepped up its watch by asking consumers to help watch for false or misleading drug ads. The reports follow a well-publicized Harvard Medical School study that found consumer ads had little effect on prescription drug sales. Two recent reports say drugmakers cut Rx ad spending in the first six months of this year. Magazines and radio stations have seen the most drug ad decline.
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