A survey published in the February issue of Consumer Reports stated that a large majority of their patients ask for prescription medications they have seen in advertisements and physicians often facilitate their requests.

According to the report, "78 percent of primary-care physicians said their patients ask for drugs they've seen advertised on TV. The surveys, which involved 335 doctors and 39,090 people around the nation, found 67 percent of doctors concede they sometimes grant their patients' requests."

Forty-one percent of Doctors that participated in the survey also concluded that many of the patients are poorly informed. Television, Radio, and print adds account for 94 percent of the annual 4.2 billion dollars spent on direct-to-consumer advertising according to the federal Government Accountability office. They also stated that such advertising is increasing 20 percent a year.

Robert Thompson, professor of popular culture at Syracuse University told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "The ads have completely turned around the old relationship when the doctor was this godlike character and you used to go in there all deferentially".

The Top 10 Prescription Drugs by Advertising Dollars Spent in 2005 were:

Nexium (heartburn) ......$223.7 million

Lunesta (sleep aid) .......$215.1 million

Vytorin (cholesterol)......$155.2 million

Crestor (cholesterol)......$141.5 million

Advair (asthma)..........$136.9 million

Nasonex (allergy).........$124.2 million

Flonase (allergy).........$111.1 million

Lamisil (toenail fungus) ...$110.2 million

Plavix (blood thinner) .....$110.2 million

Cialis (erectile dysfunction).$110.1 million

There is definitely been a clear lack of concern by the FDA to deal with this problem. The pharmaceutical industry should consider putting some of the millions it spends on direct to consumer advertising into research and development, instead of producing "innovations" on the same drugs we have had for the last 20 years.

Source: TNS Media Intelligence

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