Pharmaceutical companies spend twice as much on the promotion of medicines as on research

An analysis of two marketing studies conducted by Marc-Andre Gagnon and Joel Lexchin from York University, Toronto, shows that American pharmaceutical companies spent $57.5 billion on promotional events in 2004. According to the authors of the study, the industry spent $31.5 billion on pharmaceutical research and development in the United States in the same year, according to the National Science Foundation.

The expenses for the promotion of medicines, amounting to $ 57.5 billion, included the distribution of free samples to direct consumers of products, the costs of meetings of representatives of pharmaceutical companies with doctors, the distribution of advertising by e-mail and advertising samples by regular mail.

"As you know, pharmaceutical companies spend a lot on advertising," said J. Lexchin in an interview. "However, it came as a surprise that these sums are so huge."

For many decades, the pharmaceutical industry has positioned itself as an active initiator of major innovative and research activities. However, critics claim that pharmaceutical companies are actually speculating on this.

Data on advertising and research expenditures were last obtained in 2004. The study of this issue dates back to an investigation conducted in the United States and Canada in the 1950s. In the late 50s of the last century, Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver initiated public hearings to investigate the activities of pharmaceutical companies in the antimonopoly and antitrust subcommittees of the U.S. Senate.

The senator accused pharmaceutical manufacturers of predatory pricing, which caused the excessively high cost of drugs caused by large advertising costs for new products that were no more effective than pre-existing drugs.

This problem was also studied in the mid-1960s and 1980s. However, for more than 10 years there has been no comprehensive study of the profits and expenses of the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, and the government has practically not been provided with new information about the expenses of pharmaceutical companies for research activities.

In the United States, advertising of prescription drugs aimed at the end user is allowed, and companies producing such drugs advertise their products on television, radio and in print publications.

In their analysis, titled "The Cost of Drug Promotion: The Latest Estimate of the Cost of Drug Promotion in the United States" ("The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenses in the United States"), its authors, M.-A. Gagnon and J. Lexchin, noted that, in their opinion, the authorities should force the pharmaceutical industry to pay more attention to the research direction in their activities. "The regulatory authorities of Canada and the United States," stressed J. Lexchin, – may contribute to an increase in the costs of research activities if the criteria for approval of drugs are changed. Manufacturers will be forced to spend money on innovative research."