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The Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Pharmaceutical Prices and Demand

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  • Dhaval Dave
  • Henry Saffer

Abstract

Expenditures on prescription drugs are one of the fastest growing components of national health care spending, rising by almost three-fold between 1995 and 2007. Coinciding with this growth in prescription drug expenditures has been a rapid rise in direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), made feasible by the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) clarification and relaxation of the rules governing broadcast advertising in 1997 and 1999. This study investigates the separate effects of broadcast and non-broadcast DTCA on price and demand, utilizing an extended time series of monthly records for all advertised and non-advertised drugs in four major therapeutic classes spanning 1994-2005, a period which enveloped the shifts in FDA guidelines and the large expansions in DTCA. Controlling for promotion aimed at physicians, results from fixed effects models suggest that broadcast DTCA positively impacts own-sales and price, with an estimated elasticity of 0.10 and 0.04 respectively. Relative to broadcast DTCA, non-broadcast DTCA has a smaller impact on sales (elasticity of 0.05) and price (elasticity of 0.02). Simulations suggest that the expansion in broadcast DTCA may be responsible for about 19 percent of the overall growth in prescription drug expenditures over the sample period, with over two-thirds of this impact being driven by an increase in demand as a result of the DTCA expansion and the remainder due to higher prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Dhaval Dave & Henry Saffer, 2010. "The Impact of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Pharmaceutical Prices and Demand," NBER Working Papers 15969, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15969
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. Alpert, Abby & Lakdawalla, Darius & Sood, Neeraj, 2023. "Prescription drug advertising and drug utilization: The role of Medicare Part D," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    4. Deiana, C. & Giua, L. & Nisticò, R., 2020. "Opium Price Shocks and Prescription Opioids in the US," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 20/23, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General
    • K2 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law

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