Pharmaceutical Industry Spends Almost Double On Advertising, Compared With R&Amp

“In our paper, we make the case for the need for a new estimate of promotional expenditures by the U.S. pharmaceutical industry,” says Gagnon. “We then explain how we used proprietary databases to construct a revised estimate and finally, we compare our results with those from other data sources to argue in favor of changing the priorities of the industry.” The study is important because it provides the most accurate image yet of the promotional workings of the pharmaceutical industry, says Lexchin. The authors examined the 2004 reports of IMS Health (IMS) and CAM Group (CAM), two international market research companies that provide the pharmaceutical industry with sales/marketing data and consulting services. IMS obtains its data by surveying pharmaceutical firms, while CAM surveys doctors, which explains important discrepancies in the data they provide. The researchers used 2004 as the comparison year because it was the latest year in which information was available from both organizations. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm

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