Many drugs, but certainly not all, are extremely useful in controlling symptoms and preventing or curing illness. The companies that produce them are generally expected to make profits, growing revenues with higher prices or bigger sales volumes. But nearly all wealthy developed countries impose restrictions on the price of drugs so that option is not always available. And so companies spend massive amounts on promotion to grow sales. In the US alone, US$20 billion was spent in 2016 to convince doctors to prescribe brand name drugs.
The promotion is not only directed at doctors. The US and New Zealand both allow direct-to-consumer advertising, mentioning the name of a drug along with the problem it’s meant to treat in a single advertisement. Companies spend nearly US$10 billion a year on advertising drugs to consumers in the US.
Evidence shows advertising influences patients. Three quarters of the respondents in one American survey said they were likely to ask a health care provider about advertised drugs and 26 percent said they had already done so. Almost a quarter would look for a different doctor if their doctor refused to prescribe a requested brand name drug. This influence continues despite accumulated evidence strongly suggesting the information patients receive through advertising does not result in better prescribing - there are more negative than positive consequences from such advertising.
