Direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals: developed countries experiences and Turkey

• Published in: Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 4 - 15
• Main Authors: Semin, Semih, Aras, Şahbal, Guldal, Dilek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2007; John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subjects: Advertisements; Advertising; Associations; Community Participation; Consequences; Consumer advertising; Consumers; Developed countries; Developing Countries; Direct marketing; direct-to-consumer advertising; Drug Industry; drug information; drug promotion; Expenditures; Health care; Health services; LDCs; Medicine; Negative events; Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmaceuticals; Prescription drugs; Prescriptions; Side effects; Trends; Turkey; Viewpoint; Turkey; Ankara Turkey; Istanbul Turkey; Europe
• ISSN: 1369-6513; 1369-7625
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1369-7625.2006.00411.x

While several major problems concerning drugs occur in the world, the attempts to direct‐to‐consumer advertising (DTCA) has gained a considerable impetus lately in both developed and developing countries. DTCA has increasingly become an appealing advertising alternative for the pharmaceutical industry as drug companies have come to wrestle with such problems as the expansion of the drug market; the decline of the medical representatives’ work efficiency; drug reimbursement restrictions; and the escalating role of the Internet in the consumer market. Some of the main disadvantages of the DTCA are: increasing drug expenditures, unnecessary drug consumption and adverse effect risks. Even though the influence of pharmaceuticals on health services and the economy hold the same importance in the developed and developing countries, its negative consequences have increased by encompassing developing countries in its grip. Therefore, in this review, using Turkey as an example, the situation of direct‐to‐consumer advertisements in developing countries is analysed in relation with developed countries.