Medical journals, advertising

With these caveats in mind, 1 now briefly examine various ratios (Table 9.2). Rosenthal et al. (2002) report that while DTCA increased from 1.2% of total revenues in 1996 to 2.2% in 2000, over this same time period, hospital-based promotion and medical journal advertising decreased from 1.6% to 1.1 % of total revenues. Although the DTCA-to-sales ratio fell slightly in 2001 and 2002, by 2003, at 2.2%, its value is the same as in 2000. These numbers. 

The main customer remains the physician. GPs gain information about new products from a variety of sources including their peers and hospital colleagues. Although advertisements in medical journals are an important element in building awareness among prescribers they are not usually the basis on which physicians will start prescribing a new compound. 

Product marketing presents other ethical issues as well. In addition to direct product advertising in medical journals and direct to consumer advertising in the popular media, pharmaceutical company sales representatives frequently visit physicians. Although the... 

The industry also helped to disseminate and reinforce the view that the new drugs were disease-specific treatments. Advertisements for antidepressants in the British Medical Journal and the American Journal of Psychiatry stress their specificity. Illustration 4.1 shows an early advertisement for Tofranil (imipramine), for example, asserting that it is a "specific" treatment for depression. 

All trial evidence should be published before new drugs are marketed, and medical journals should not carry advertisements referring to unpublished data. 

Heroin enjoyed brief popularity as a cough suppressant immediately after its invention. This advertisement appeared in a 1903 medical journal. ( 1903 by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission)... 

The physician s involvement in clinical research does not end with the completion of the clinical study. Medical reports, clinical study reports, and sections of NDAs must be written. Interactions with regulatory agencies that require the physician s input may occur frequently. Physicians in clinical research may also be called upon to promote new drugs in a scientific environment by organizing symposia and workshops and by reviewing journal advertisements and promotional material for medical validity and accuracy. 

Mintz, M. Heroine of FDA Keeps Bad Drug ofFMarket. Washington Post, 15 July 1962, Ai. Mintzes, B., et al. Influence of Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising and Patients Requests on Prescribing Decisions. British Medical Journal 324 (2002) 278-79. 

Member companies shall fully realise that brochures, advertisements in medical journals, internet web pages for the medical profession, audiovisual materials and other promotional materials are important... 

Member companies shall fully realise that brochures, advertisements in medical journals, internet web pages for the medical profession, audiovisual materials such as slides and video tape-recording, and other promotional materials are important media in dissemination of drug information, and they must produce and use those materials in compliance with the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law and relevant selfregulations. The statements contained in these materials must be correct, fair and objective, based on scientific data. 

Promotional material other than advertisements appearing in professional publications must include the date on which the promotional material was drawn up or the last revision made. Abbreviated advertisement or reminder advertisement This is defined as a short advertisement in a medical journal the following should be included to comply with the regulation and code ... 

DTC advertising is prohibited within the EU, but is seen as inevitable to some extent anyway due to international access to the Internet and digital television ( t Hoen, 2003). This prohibition is to the extent that medical journals bearing drag advertisements on their covers cannot be mailed in see-through bags unless such advertisements are obscured with additional pieces of paper inside the wrapper. 

Villanueva P, Peiro S, Librero J, et al. 2003. Accuracy of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals. Lancet 361 27-232. 

Wilkes, M. S., Doblin, B., Shapiro, M., Pharmaceutical Advertisements in Leading Medical Journals Experts Assessments, Annals of Internal Medicine 116 912-919,1992. 

Mention was made previously to advertisements in medical journals as a means of communication between the drug industry and the clinical physician. This mechanism must rate high on the value scale of effectiveness in postgraduate education, and the observant doctor recognizes a double contribution in this source. First, he has the opportunity to scan quickly for names he does not recognize and which he may wish to pursue further secondly, he has available the benefits of the scientific articles in a journal made economically possible by the advertising. 

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