Direct-To-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising (DTCPA) In The US

Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising (DTCPA) refers to marketing and advertising pharmaceutical products directly to the consumers as patients, opposed to specifically targeting healthcare professionals. DTCPA refers to advertising prescription medicines via mass media communication platforms such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and online platforms. Most countries ban any advertising of prescription drugs directly to the consumers.

Direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is only legal in the US and New Zealand. Still, it is subject to regulations concerning the balanced disclosure of a prescription’s benefits in comparison to its risks, including the side effects and contraindications. Typically, the regulations for DTCPA are applied to advertising materials describing the indications and benefits of the prescription and may be more lenient to advertising materials that don’t discuss its uses.

There are ethical and regulatory concerns surrounding DTCPA, explicitly the extent to which these ads may influence the prescribing of the medicines based on consumer demands when in some cases, they may not be medically required, or other cheaper options are available. Critics of the DTCPA have argued that excess money is spent on marketing the medications instead of research and development in the US. The ad spending by the pharmaceutical industry reached US$5.2 Billion in 2016.

Types of Direct-to-consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising (DTCPA)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines several common types of DTCPA for prescription medication in the US.

1 Product Claim Advertisement

This is the most common DTCP advertising that identifies the drug name and