Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Direct To Consumer Drug Advertisements: A Dangerous Game Of Pitching Products To Parents, Lynne Graziano

Annual Conference Presentations, Papers, and Posters

The annual budget for drug advertising in the United States exceeds that for all undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and comes close to the entire budget of the National Institutes of Health. In 2008 drug advertisers spent $4.7 billion, down from a record $4.8 billion in 2006, but up from $2.6 billion in 2002. Since the relaxation of full disclosure rules for television advertising, the amount spent on direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCA) has soared, leading to increased sales of certain pharmaceuticals, as advertisements are placed in magazines, newspapers, internet websites and on television. These prescription-drug ads prompt nearly one-third of Americans …