Pharmaceutical Marketing

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that American consumers are impressionable and pharmaceutical ads can be some of the most compelling in the marketplace tending to downplay the risks associated with specific drugs or list the risks in a "laundry list" at the end of a commercial or print ad. The author points out that doctors listen to their patients who clamor for a specific treatment or drugs because they have seen it advertised and feel it applies directly to their treatment or illness: Many physicians recognize the danger it implies to the medical community and their patients. The paper suggests that patients are prescribing their own medications because of increased awareness due to advertising and, as the medical community continues to sanction this behavior, it seems clear that more problems and health related troubles will occur.

From the Paper:

"Pharmaceutical companies have always marketed their products, but until the late 1980s, companies geared their marketing only to physicians and healthcare professionals. In 1990, two prestigious medical groups, the American Medical Association (AMA), and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA), created specific ethical guidelines that strongly recommended physicians should not accept marketing gifts and consideration from pharmaceutical companies because of the ethical nature of accepting these gifts. Then, in 1997, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidelines that allowed drug makers to specify uses for their drugs in their advertising. Again in 2003 some of these marketing issues were addressed when the "U.S. Office of the Inspector General released guidelines for companies' interaction with health care professionals in connection with federal health care programs." Thus, marketing strategies for drug companies changed. Where they once had wooed physicians with free meals, gifts, and cash incentives to prescribe their medicines, increasingly, pharmaceutical companies turned toward marketing to the consumer, rather than the healthcare professional."

More papers on Pharmaceutical Marketing:

• Essay # 40916 : "Pharmaceutical Marketing and Ethics"
• Persuasive Essay # 133543 : "Pharmaceutical Marketing"
• Essay # 32124 : "The Evolution Of Marketing In The Pharmaceutical Industry"

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