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Friday, December 13, 2002In 2001, the top drug companies generated $17 in sales from each dollar spent on marketing, down from $22.20 for each $1 spent in 1998, the report said. Attracted by the lack of drug price controls and of marketing limitations in the United States, the pharmaceutical companies spend most of their promotional dollars in American markets. They spend 12 times as much to promote their prescription products in the United States than in Europe's largest medicine market, Germany, Datamonitor said. But to continue to finance the large increases in promotional expenses, some companies will be forced to decrease spending in areas like research aimed at finding new drugs, the report said. But the companies are loathe to give up old habits: Mariann Caprino, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said that the analysis appeared "overly simplistic" and that Pfizer considered its promotional spending a "valuable investment." "We take our responsibility of educating physicians and patients seriously," she said. Do you suppose they really believe their mission is “education”? Datamonitor recommended that the drug companies reduce their promotional spending or find ways to make it more effective. But drug executives told the consultants that they planned to continue their rapid increases in promotional spending, saying they must keep up with competitors. "We are like a school of fish and no one is brave enough to go the other way," a pharmaceutical executive told the analysts as they researched their report, which was published last month. posted by Sydney on 12/13/2002 06:47:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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