Ma Jun, Stafford Randall S, Cockburn Iain M, Finkelstein Stan N
Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA.
Clin Ther. 2003 May;25(5):1503-17. doi: 10.1016/s0149-2918(03)80136-4.
Although pharmaceutical industry marketing and other factors may influence physician decisions regarding medication prescribing in the United States, little information is available about the composition of promotional efforts by promotional mode and medication class.
The aims of this study were to determine the magnitude of expenditures for common modes of promotion and to delineate patterns of promotional strategies for particular classes of medications.
Nationally representative data on expenditures (in US $) for the 250 most promoted medications in the United States in 1998 were available from an independent pharmaceutical market research company for the 5 most commonly used modes of promotion. Key patterns of drug promotion were identified by descriptive statistics, a cluster analysis of expenditures by class, and an analysis of expenditure concentration.
In 1998, the pharmaceutical industry spent $12,724 million promoting its products in the United States, of which 85.9% was accounted for by the top 250 drugs and 51.6% by the top 50 drugs. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising was more concentrated on a small subset of medications than was promotion to professionals. Overall, 1998 expenditures were dominated by free drug samples provided to physicians (equivalent retail cost of $6602 million) and office promotion ($3537 million), followed by DTC advertising ($1337 million), hospital promotion ($705 million), and advertising in medical journals ($540 million). Four distinct patterns of expenditures were observed: promotion to office physicians with little consumer promotion (14 drug classes); dual focus on office physicians and consumer advertising (4 drug classes); predominant DTC advertising (1 class: smoking-cessation products); and promotion to office- and hospital-based professionals without consumer advertising (1 class: narcotic analgesics).
The present findings reinforce the perception that the pharmaceutical industry invests heavily in promoting its products and demonstrates that promotional expenditures are concentrated on a small number of medications. Although promotion to professionals remains dominant, DTC advertising has become key for a subset of common medications
尽管制药行业的营销及其他因素可能会影响美国医生的用药处方决策，但关于按促销方式和药物类别划分的促销活动构成的信息却很少。
本研究的目的是确定常见促销方式的支出规模，并描绘特定药物类别的促销策略模式。
1998年美国最常促销的250种药物的支出（以美元计）的全国代表性数据可从一家独立的制药市场研究公司获得，涉及5种最常用的促销方式。通过描述性统计、按类别对支出进行聚类分析以及支出集中度分析，确定了药物促销的关键模式。
1998年，制药行业在美国花费127.24亿美元促销其产品，其中85.9%由前250种药物贡献，51.6%由前50种药物贡献。与面向专业人士的促销相比，直接面向消费者（DTC）广告更集中于一小部分药物。总体而言，1998年的支出主要由提供给医生的免费药品样品（零售成本相当于66.02亿美元）和办公室促销（35.37亿美元）构成，其次是DTC广告（13.37亿美元）、医院促销（7.05亿美元）以及医学期刊广告（5.4亿美元）。观察到四种不同的支出模式：以面向办公室医生的促销为主，面向消费者的促销较少（14个药物类别）；同时关注办公室医生和消费者广告（4个药物类别）；主要是DTC广告（1个类别：戒烟产品）；以及面向办公室和医院专业人士的促销，无面向消费者的广告（1个类别：麻醉性镇痛药）。
目前的研究结果强化了制药行业在大力促销其产品这一认知，并表明促销支出集中在少数几种药物上。尽管面向专业人士的促销仍然占主导地位，但DTC广告已成为一部分常见药物的关键促销方式。
