Big Pharma spends more on marketing than R&D
Mike Dobson | 04.01.2008 10:36 | Globalisation | Health | Other Press | World
The pharmaceutical industry has long attempted to justify the unaffordablility of medicines by the high costs of research & development. Recently in PLos Medicine Canadian academics Marc-André Gagnon and Joel Lexchin have cast yet further doubt on this fib by demonstrating big pharma spends more on promotion of its products to physicians than R&D in the USA.
Pharmaceutical promotion in the United States in 2004 is as high as $57.5 billion compared to the figure of $27.7 billion given by IMS [ the most widely quoted authority that surveys pharmaceutical firms]. Excluding direct-to-consumers advertising and promotion towards pharmacists, the industry spent around $61,000 in promotion per practicing physician.
[P]romotion consumes 24.4% of the sales dollar versus 13.4% for R&D. In light of these numbers, one can safely argue that marketing is predominant over R&D in the pharmaceutical industry, contrary to the industry’s claim.
Citation: Gagnon MA, Lexchin J (2008) The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States. PLoS Med 5(1): e1 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001
[P]romotion consumes 24.4% of the sales dollar versus 13.4% for R&D. In light of these numbers, one can safely argue that marketing is predominant over R&D in the pharmaceutical industry, contrary to the industry’s claim.
Citation: Gagnon MA, Lexchin J (2008) The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States. PLoS Med 5(1): e1 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001
Mike Dobson
e-mail:
michael.dob871@onetel.net
