Whenever you watch the news, or a sporting event, does it ever seem like there are a lot of ads for drugs? For that special moment there are Cialis and Viagra and a host of other things that nice looking people suffering various maladies suddenly get better in a 30 to 60 second span while you are extolled to “Ask your Doctor about…”, while the fastest talking person you have ever heard rockets through risks and side effects.
Eli Lilly spent $272 million on ads for Cialis in 2014 while Pfizer spent $232 million on Viagra. Past years total spending, include 2013, was $3.83 billion and in 2012 $3.47 billion.
But it is not quite the $4.17 billion spent in 2010 or the $5.4 billion spent in 2006.
Pfizer, who led in spending in 2013, again led all drug companies spending an astounding $1.4 billion on ads in 2014. In fact, Pfizer ranked among the top 10 of all advertisers, ahead of Toyota, Chrysler, Verizon, but behind L’Oreal.
According to a bulletin of the World Health Organization, “Direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs has been legal in the USA since 1985, but only really took off in 1997 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) eased up on a rule obliging companies to offer a detailed list of side-effects in their infomercials (long format television commercials). Since then, the industry has poured money into this form of promotion, spending just under $5 billion last year alone. The only other country in the world that allows direct-to-consumer drug ads is New Zealand, a country of just over four million people.”
Click here to read the full article: Direct-to-Consumer Advertising Under Fire
Clearly, direct-to-consumer ads work in driving sales. But, is a 30 to 60 second format the best way to inform a consumer of what can really happen? But the point of the ads is to create demand and history shows it creates that and huge profits too.
At The Brandi Law Firm, we help people throughout the country who have been harmed because of a defective drug or medical device such as Actos (Takata), Fosamax (Merck), DePuy (Johnson & Johnson), Lipitor (Pfizer), Yaz (Bayer), Avandia (GSK), and Vaginal Mesh (Johnson & Johnson). Instead of treating all victims of defective drugs and medical devices the same we take a different, more personalized approach with a team of experienced defective drug attorneys and paralegals working for every client. Our goal is to provide you with information about your legal options and to help you pursue compensation and holding these drug companies responsible for their dangerous actions. Please contact The Brandi Law Firm today (1-800-481-1615 or email us) to talk with the experienced San Francisco defective drug attorneys.