Pharmaceutical Industry's DTC Advertising Trend is Focus of PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Care Services Conference.PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 1998-- Leading Health Care Advertising Executive Tells Major Pharmaceutical and Health Care Delivery Executives That Pharmaceutical Firms are Going Directly to Consumers and Why A leading specialist in health care advertising said here that the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies are in many cases, finding it most effective to go direct to the consumer with their advertising message. "The current environment is right for direct-to-consumer (DTC DTC See: Depository Transfer Check DTC See: Depository Trust Company DTC See Depository Trust Company (DTC). ) advertising," said Lorraine Pastore, executive vice president and management director of Medicus Communications, a leading DTC pharmaceutical advertising agency. "Consumers want to be involved in their healthcare decisions; managed care has changed their perceptions of healthcare providers." Entitled "From the Molecule to the Masses: Strategic Response to Patient Power Policy," Ms. Pastore's presentation was delivered at the PricewaterhouseCoopers 7th Annual Pharmaceutical Industry Update. The presentation, hosted by the PricewaterhouseCoopers Integrated Health Care integrated health care, n healthcare services combining the best of conventional and complementary health care. Consulting Services practice, was attended by more than 150 leading pharmaceutical and health care delivery executives. Ms. Pastore pointed out that the major pharmaceutical companies are spending significant amounts of their ad budgets on DTC advertising since the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. relaxed the rules in August 1997. In the first quarter of 1998, for example, Glaxo Wellcome spent $53 million on DTC; Merck & Company $31 million and Eli Lilly $26 million. The top 10 prescription drugs advertised directly to consumers in the first quarter of 1998 were: Pravachol, Claritin, Prilosec, Imitrex, Allegra, Prozac, Premarin, Valtrex, Zocor and Evista. According to IMS (1) See IP Multimedia Subsystem. (2) (Information Management System) An early IBM hierarchical DBMS for IBM mainframes. IMS was widely implemented throughout the 1970s under MVS and continues to be used under z/OS. data, Ms. Pastore, noted that physicians have a mixed reaction to this new trend in DTC advertising. About 35% would like it to go away; 30% think it should continue as is; 26% want it to be reduced; and 9% would like to see it increased. Citing Prevention magazine statistics on reactions to DTC advertising in different media, Ms. Pastore said that consumers were in agreement that the ads were clear and useful on television (58%) magazines (59%); and newspapers (71%). Ms. Pastore said DTC makes sense in particular circumstances--certainly for symptomatic conditions. "DTC advertising won't facilitate a productive discussion between the patient and doctor if you haven't done your homework with the physician. It also won't make sense if the brand has an efficacy disadvantage or the side effects Side effects Effects of a proposed project on other parts of the firm. are worse than the disease. It would also be counter-productive if the doctor's story is stronger, if the low incidence of the disease is not offset by the cost of the therapy or generic substitution for the brand is imminent." "Ms. Pastore gave attendees an insightful look at the growing trend in DTC pharmaceutical advertising," said A. Peter Solano, Principal-in-Charge of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Pharmaceutical & Healthcare Products Division. "She also offered us some very useful tips on how to approach DTC pharmaceutical advertising strategically." Over her 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical marketing to physicians and consumers, Ms. Pastore has worked on many leading products, including Tylenol, Citrucel, Seldane and Aleve. Her recent work has included the Rx and DTC launches of Allegra and DTC advertising for Lamisil. She and her team enabled Allegra to be the very first product to take advantage of the federal government's new consumer broadcast guidelines with a branded indication TV spot, which aired on August 8, 1997, the day the guidelines changed. PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwcglobal.com), the world's largest professional services organization, helps its clients build value, manage risk and improve their performance. 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