Spending Rally on DTC Drug Ads?
For what it's worth (perhaps a teeny-tiny indicator of an economic rebound?), pharma's spending on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising increased substantially during the third quarter of this year, to about $1.26 billion according to data from TNS Media Intelligence.* Numbers provided directly by the "intelligence" firm indicate that pharma's investment in DTC advertising increased by nearly 16% during July-September of 2009, when compared with DTC expenditures during the same time last year.
The following figures from TNS show that the latest quarterly increase in pharma's DTC ad spend has stabilized the declining trend in DTC investment for the year. (According to the latest data from the Congressional Budget Office, DTC expenditures by pharma totaled $4.7 billion in 2008—which has declined from a peak of $5.4 billion in 2006.)
|
Time Period |
DTC Spend, 2008 |
DTC Spend, 2009 |
Change |
|
Q1-Q2 |
$2,373,589,000 |
$2,221,822,000 |
–6.4% |
|
Q1-Q3 |
$3,462,700,000 |
$3,483,600,000 |
+0.6% |
|
Q3 |
$1,089,111,000 |
$1,261,778,000 |
+15.9% |
Television advertising still gets the biggest share of the DTC pie, about 65% of the outlay, according to the data; although investment in TV prescription drug ads dropped slightly (by 3.9%) during the first 2 quarters of 2009. Spending on Internet-based drug advertising (ie, banner ads) increased dramatically during the first half of the year, from about $36 million in 2008 to roughly $116 million (an increase of >200%).
|
Media |
DTC Spend, Q1-Q2 2008 (Thousands) |
% |
DTC Spend, Q1-Q2 2009 (Thousands) |
% |
Year-to-Year Change |
|
TV |
$1,524,602 |
64.2 |
$1,465,068 |
65.9 |
–3.9% |
|
Magazine |
$738,326 |
31.1 |
$583,217 |
26.2 |
–21.0% |
|
Newspaper |
$66,833 |
2.8 |
$44,980 |
2.0 |
–32.7% |
|
Internet |
$35,945 |
1.5 |
$116,178 |
5.2 |
+223.2% |
|
Radio |
$6002 |
0.3 |
$11,208 |
0.5 |
+86.7% |
|
Outdoor |
$1881 |
0.1 |
$1173 |
0.1 |
–37.6% |
|
Total |
$2,373,589 |
100.0 |
$2,221,824 |
100.0 |
–6.4% |
DTC Perspectives,* also referencing data from TNS Media Intelligence, indicates that spending on Internet-based ads more than tripled during the first 9 months of 2009, to $221 million.
Money spent advertising the top 10 promoted drugs to consumers accounted for nearly 40% of DTC expenditures during the first half of 2009. Again, these data are provided directly by TNS Media Intelligence.
|
Brand Name Drug (Company) |
DTC Spend, Q1-Q2 2008 (Thousands) |
DTC Spend, Q1-Q2 2009 (Thousands) |
|
Lipitor (Pfizer) |
$28,066 |
$117,014 |
|
Abilify (BMS/Otsuka) |
$53,557 |
$114,506 |
|
Cymbalta (Lilly) |
$84,527 |
$93,004 |
|
Advair (GSK) |
$93,643 |
$87,390 |
|
Plavix (BMS/sanofi) |
$94,952 |
$81,585 |
|
Ambien (sanofi-aventis) |
$79,808 |
$79,458 |
|
Lyrica (Pfizer) |
$87,436 |
$75,734 |
|
Cialis (Lilly) |
$65,750 |
$70,660 |
|
Singulair (Merck) |
$51,284 |
$70,628 |
|
Crestor (AstraZeneca) |
$62,135 |
$68,739 |
|
Total |
$701,158 |
$858,718 |
|
Percentage of DTC $ |
29.5% |
38.6% |
* DTC Perspectives, citing TNS Media Intelligence, indicated that pharma's DTC spending for Q3 of 2009 was about $1.16 billion, which is $100 million off from my calculation. DTC Perspectives Q3 calculation was requoted by Pharmalot.
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