Over the years, advertising for prescription medications has provided consumers the knowledge they need to recognize symptoms, understand drug treatments, and initiate meaningful dialogues with their doctors. Of course, a number of prevailing myths would have us believe otherwise — myths about the cost, the effectiveness and the results of advertising. They exist because people don’t know the facts.

PhRMA recently adopted a set of “Guiding Principles” to help ensure that DTC advertising remains an important and powerful tool to educate patients while at the same time addressing many of the concerns expressed about DTC advertising over the past few years.

> Click here to read PhRMA’s Guiding Principles on Direct-to-Consumer Advertisements.

> Click here to read the press release on PhRMA’s Guiding Principles on Direct-to-Consumer Advertisements.

> Click here to read more about the impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertisements.

Get the facts on the value of prescription drug advertising:

• Tough Questions, Straight Answers – A Discussion of Today’s Pharmaceutical Issues
  This brochure highlights some tough questions that have been asked about pharmaceutical spending, presenting answers rooted in research, analysis, and facts.


• Research indicates that DTCA helps educate patients about medical conditions and treatment options, encourages dialogue between patients and physicians, prompts large numbers of Americans to discuss illnesses with their physicians for the first time and many others to do so earlier than they otherwise would have, and promotes improved compliance with physician-prescribed treatments.
  > Click here to read more about this research.


• Read about how DTC advertising can be a powerful tool in educating millions of people and improving health in PhRMA Chief Medical Officer Paul Antony’s recent Congressional testimony.
  > Click here.


• Charleston Daily Mail – Drug Advertising Does Not Raise Prices
  November 3, 2005