Why don't drug ads work? Or do they?

excerpt of article by Keith J. Winstein and Suzanne Vranica

(Companies Featured in Article: Amgen, Schering Plough, Novartis)

Consumer advertising for prescription drugs had a negligible impact on sales of products studied by Harvard Medical School researchers -- in a finding that may confound both advertisers and their opponents.

The study may undercut the arguments of opponents of such ads, which have been allowed almost nowhere outside the U.S. Critics say they lead to drug overuse and misuse by impressionable patients pressing their doctors to prescribe what is seen on TV.

But the study also raises the question of whether the pharmaceutical industry's $4.8 billion annual spending on such ads is a waste of shareholders' money. from WSJ U.S. Drug Ads Questioned