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New Online Study Finds Doctors Strongly Support Policing of Pharma Industry's Advertising Initiatives
Parsippany, NJ, September 21,2005 - While the pharmaceutical industry attempts to determine appropriate protocols for advertising their new prescription medications directly to consumers, physicians have voiced their opinions on the issue. In this HRA Research Internet study of doctors attitudes on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs, 81 % of the 2,015 physician surveyed believe it is a good idea to prohibit DTC advertising for new prescription drugs for a period of time after the FDA has approved a new drug so that physicians have time to gain familiarity with the medication.
While more than four out of five physicians favored some type of ban on DTC advertising for all new prescription drugs, there was less agreement on the type of ban that they would be most likely to support. Forty-three (43%) favor a mandatory ban for some limited period of time, one-third (33%) favor a voluntary ban with each pharmaceutical company deciding when to begin advertising to consumers and twenty-four (24%) not believing it is necessary to place either type of ban on DTC advertising.
Drilling down deeper on the topic, the study revealed that doctors strongly believe that DTC marketing raises awareness of health issues, fosters communication on health issues between physicians and patients and gets patients to schedule appointments. Of note, 56% of the doctors noted that they get one to five calls a week to discuss a DTC advertised drug or schedule an appointment to discuss a DTC advertised drug. In addition, 65% of the doctors stated that patients initiate discussions on DTC advertised drugs between one and five times per week and that 64% of the physicians get one to five patient requests per week for DTC advertised drugs. The study also found that nearly two-thirds (62%) of those doctors stated that they prescribe the discussed medication only one-quarter of the time or less, with nearly 40% of those physicians writing a prescription 10% or less of the time.
"There is a direct correlation between pharmaceutical companies marketing directly to consumers and those consumers initiating a discussion with their physicians," said Marianne Stephen, president of HRA Research, a healthcare market research company that specializes in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. "The disconnect occurs when the patient's request for the medication is rebuffed by the doctor."
Support for restrictions on DTC advertising may be driven in part by physician concerns about the DTC ads themselves. Physicians rated strong disagreement with statements about DTC ads providing complete information about the risk factors and health benefits of the medications while doctors strongly agreed with statements that advertising directly to consumers turn medications into just another consumer product, encourages patients to request unnecessary medications and increases the cost of prescription drugs.
"The medical community is stating that they do not believe that the advertisements are providing complete and accurate information on the medicines and that their patients have been sold on products that they don't necessarily require," stated Stephen.
HRA Research conducted this Internet research survey from September
6 - 10,2005. A nationally representative sample of2,015 hospital
and office-based physicians practicing within the United States
participated in the study. The following specialist segments were
included in the study: Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Dermatology,
Emergency Medicine, Endocrinology, Family Practice, Gastroenterology,
Geriatrics, Infectious Disease, Internal Medicine, Nephrology, Neurology,
OB/GYN, Oncology, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Pulmonology,
Radiology, Rheumatology, Surgery and Urology.
HRA Research is a leading market research company that specializes
in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.
Our complete portfolio of syndicated products and custom research
services provide our clients with actionable intelligence from the
office and hospital setting. HRA utilizes both quantitative and
qualitative research tactics to gather data on healthcare products
at every stage of their lifecycle. F or additional information on
the Physician Impressions of DTC Advertising study or to access
detailed graphics on any physician specialty, please contact Jeff
Chase at jchase@hraresearch.com
or (973) 240-1216.
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