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Drug Ads Influence Patient Visits, Brands

Posted on: Tuesday, 12 September 2006, 15:00 CDT

Prescription-drug ads on TV influence patient visits and favored one osteoarthritis drug over another, found a U.S. study.

Up until 1997, manufacturers could not say both the product's name and what it was used for, in a TV ad, says Andrew N. Kleit of The Pennsylvania State University.

However, since 1997 direct-to-consumer ads have flourished, even with the requirement that the ads must list all the potential side effects and counter indications.

Kleit and a team of researchers from Medical University of South Carolina investigated how two osteoarthritis drugs influenced patients' medical visits and doctors prescribing the drug from 2000 to 2002.

These ads convinced more people to visit their doctor's for treatment of osteoarthritis, says Kleit. Interestingly, the Celebrex ads were not very good at getting people to ask for or prescribe Celebrex, but did influence visits to the doctor and Vioxx prescriptions.

The study, published in Health Affairs, found the effect of Vioxx direct-to-consumer advertising was consistently positive, increasing the proportion of osteoarthritis patient visits for which a prescription was written for Vioxx.

Merck voluntarily removed Vioxx from the market in 2004 due to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Source: United Press International

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