Economics
Pharmaceutical company spending on marketing exceeds that spent on research. In 2004 in Canada $1.7 billion a year was spent marketing drugs to physicians and in the United States $21 billion were spent in 2002. In 2005 money spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the US was estimated at $29.9 billion with one estimate as high as $57 billion. When the US number are broken down 56% was free samples, 25% was detailing of physicians, 12.5% was direct to users advertising, 4% on hospital detailing, and 2% on journal ads. In the United States approximately $20 billion could be saved if generics were used instead of equivalent brand name products.
Although pharmaceutical companies have made large investments in marketing their products, overall promotional spending has been decreasing over the last few years, and declined by 10 percent from 2009 to 2010. Pharmaceutical companies are cutting back mostly in detailing and sampling, while spending in mailings and print advertising grew since last year.
Read more about this topic: Pharmaceutical Marketing
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