Every self-respecting pharma exec will tell you: R&D is the industry's peculiar burden, the chief reason why brand-name drugs are so expensive. But the average Joe or Jane consumer thinks that's, er, a lot of bunk. It's marketing that drives the costs of their meds ever upward.
Now, a couple of academics have the figures. After combing through market research, they found that pharma spent $57.5 billion on marketing in 2004--almost twice the $31.5 billion spent on research that year [1], according to the National Science Foundation. And the research numbers include public funding, not just company expenses.
The data "confirms the public image of a marketing-driven industry," the study authors wrote. It also shows that the industry needs to be redirected toward research and away from brand-building, they wrote. Just how might that redirection happen? They didn't say.
- see this release release [2]
-get the journal article [3] from PLoS Medicine
Related Articles:
Study: DTC ad spending on the rise. Report [4]
10 reforms for drug advertising. Report [5]
FDA to study TV drug ad imagery. Report [6]
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercebiotech.com/special-reports/top-15-r-d-budgets
[2] http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-releases/drug-industry-spends-nearly-twice-much-marketing-research-and-development
[3] http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001&ct=1
[4] http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/study-dtc-ad-spending-rise/2007-08-16
[5] http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/10-reforms-drug-advertising/2007-08-02
[6] http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/fda-study-tv-drug-ad-imagery/2007-08-22