www.netzealous.com

• One of the grey areas that the FDA regulates, but notwith the same degree of stringency as it does manypharmaceutical and healthcare products is Direct toConsumer (DTC) marketing. As the name suggests,Direct to Consumer or Direct to ConsumerPharmaceutical Advertising (DTCPA) is a form ofmarketing in which pharmaceutical companiesadvertise to its consumers directly over the media suchas television and radio. It has gained such prominenceand popularity that it is considered the most prevalentform of communication from the medical profession topatients in the US today.

• The US is considered the only country, other from NewZealand, to allow pharmaceutical companies to useDTCPA to make claims on the product. The contrast inthe situations in these two countries cannot be moreglaring, since New Zealand has less than 1.5 percentof the population in the US! In the US, DTCPA is ahuge medium, since it is the world’s leading market forhealthcare and is also a very consumerist and beautyand health conscious society.

www.netzealous.com

• Direct to Consumer PharmaceuticalAdvertising is both stronglydefended, if not glorified or revered,and reviled for what it does to theconsumer, the pharmaceuticalcompany, and the healthcare sectoras a whole.

www.netzealous.com

• One of the main arguments in factor of DTCPA is thatAmerican society is highly educated and can easily discernwhatever information is fed to them. In such a knowledge-driven, knowledge-oriented nation as the US, it is ananachronism of sorts if all channels of information andmarketing are open, but only that of pharmaceuticals andhealthcare is not.

• Proponents of the concept of DTCPA argue that just asadvertising for most other products do not automaticallyresult in purchases, the same goes for Direct to ConsumerPharmaceutical Advertising. Only because these wares arebeing advertised doesn’t mean that people will automaticallybuy them and start using them blindly without examining theside effects, efficacy and a whole host of attributes that theywould if the products were advertised through othermediums.

www.netzealous.com

• For pharmaceuticals, Direct to ConsumerPharmaceutical Advertising is a very strong tool forgiving their products a fillip, because in economiessuch as the US, in which there is a high level ofconsumer awareness, the endorsement of a brand bya practitioner or a popular character will have theeffect of spurring them to ask for the product eitherwith their own physician or practitioner or at the retailoutlet at which they buy their pharmaceuticalproducts. In this way, both the practice’s and theretailer’s business goes up.

www.netzealous.com

• Another point that opponents of the idea of DTCPA put

forth is that by resorting to this medium, pharmaceutical

companies may be lining their pockets, but mainly at

the expense of the consumer. DTCPA is a contributor

to the American economy since it boosts the level of

prescriptions and triggers sales of products, but the big

question is what kind of products are bought on

account of DTCPA.• Are these the products that the

consumers need? By motivating the

consumer to buy mostly unnecessary

products, this advertising medium

makes an already consumerist

economy spend even more on

products that are mostly unwanted

and serve nothing more than just

cosmetic purposes.www.netzealous.com

• This means that the American healthcare sector is bloating

more with the use of such products, making the hardworking

taxpayer pay for this massive sector, rather than increase

awareness of the products nationally. This defeats the purpose

of healthcare, which should be about improving the quality of

life, instead of splurging on peripheral needs.

• A very important point that those who oppose DTCPA offer is

that there is almost no way by which the claims made by these

ads can be verified. In a popular episode, a medical practitioner

was attributed as being the author of a breakthrough study on

the ill effects of cholesterol. The call for using a cholesterol

lowering drug made by this practitioner had a big effect on the

sale of the drug across the US. It later turned out that not only

was the report wrongly attributed to the said practitioner; he

was not even an authorized practitioner.

www.netzealous.com

• Opponents of DTCPA have another couple of strong

points to denounce this practice. They think that these

ads promote the use of non-label or over-the-counter

drugs, whose efficacy is always debatable. They also

believe that this medium reduces pharmaceutical

products to the level of any other consumer item with

largely misleading information about products that are

not absolutely necessary, often promoted by

celebrities who have no clue about the real value of

the product.

• The FDA is seen as being lax when it should be a lot

more proactive in this area. This regulatory authority,

on its part, says that it is on vigil, carrying out periodic

surveys with consumers to gauge the effect of these

ads on their buying patterns and of course, health.

www.netzealous.com

• Professional trainings from NetZealous LLC, a Fremont, CA-

based provider of professional trainings can help clear the

air about the uses or otherwise of Direct to Consumer

Pharmaceutical Advertising and all other related topics.

NetZealous LLC offers professional trainings in the areas of

regulatory compliance, human resources, healthcare and IT

through highly rated and well known experts in these fields.

NetZealous LLC’s flexible, interactive and easy to

understand trainings help professionals gain clarity over any

area on which they may have doubts.

www.netzealous.com

www.netzealous.com