Economic messages in prescription drug advertisements in medical journals.
BACKGROUND
The extent to which pharmaceutical companies promote the economic advantages of their products in advertisements in medical journals, and whether such claims are supported by evidence, has not been quantified. Our objectives were to examine how often prescription drug advertisements in leading medical journals contain economic messages, and to determine the types of promotional claims made and whether supporting evidence is provided.


METHODS
All prescription drug advertisements appearing in six leading general medical and specialty journals in 3 selected months annually from 1990 to 1999 were reviewed. Using a standard data collection form, two reviewers examined each ad for economic content-including mention of the drug's price, value, cost saving, or cost-effectiveness.


RESULTS
Economic messages appeared in 237 (11.1%) of the 2144 advertisements examined. Proportion of ads with economic content has increased over time (P = 0.003). Most frequently, economic ads contained statements that drugs were "less expensive" or "cost less" than alternative treatments (50.6% of economic ads). Supporting evidence for economic claims was clearly reported in 63.7% of cases, and typically referred to published drug prices rather than more detailed economic analysis. Ads for calcium channel blocking agents and ACE inhibitors frequently contained economic messages.


CONCLUSIONS
Economic messages about prescription drugs are used in advertisements in leading medical journals and their frequency may be rising. Physicians should be aware of this phenomenon, and its potential impact on their prescribing decisions. More scrutiny of the supporting evidence underlying economic claims by the medical community and regulators may be needed.
Neumann
Peter J
PJ
Program on the Economic Evaluation of Medical Technology, Center for Risk Analysis Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. pneumann@hsph.harvard.edu
Zivin Bambauer
Kara
K
Ramakrishnan
Vijay
V
Stewart
Kate A
KA
Bell
Chaim M
CM
D000329:Advertising; D017046:Cost Savings; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004345:Drug Industry; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000191:economics*
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations