TV ads for prescription drugs are on the rise

Laura Ries was moved to action when she saw a TV commercial that portrayed a woman enjoying time with her grandchildren after taking Lyrica, a prescription medication for diabetic nerve pain. Ries' elderly mother suffered from that problem.

"The ad showed someone who was enjoying life again," said Ries, president of a marketing strategy firm in Atlanta, who then researched the drug and spoke with her mother's doctor. "This … was very relatable to what my mom was experiencing."

Her reaction was precisely the aim of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising: getting patients or their family members to remember a drug's name and ask for a prescription.

Spending on such commercials has grown 62 percent since 2012, even as ad spending for most other product types was flat.

"Pharmaceutical advertising has grown more in the past four years than any other leading ad category," said Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media, a consulting firm that tracks multimedia advertising. It exceeded $6 billion last year, with television picking up the lion's share, according to Kantar data. Shows such as the major network's evening news programs, the CBS comedy "Mike & Molly" and ABC's daytime drama "General Hospital" are heavy with drug ads, Kantar data show.

But the proliferation of drug advertisements has generated new controversy, in part because the ads inevitably promote high-priced drugs, some of which doctors say have limited practical utility for the average patient-viewer. The cost of Lyrica, the drug Ries asked about for her mom, is about $400 for 60 capsules, for example. Critics say the ads encourage patients to ask their doctors for expensive, often marginal — and sometimes inappropriate — drugs that are fueling spiraling health care spending.

The American Medical Association took a hard-line position on these ads in 2015 by calling for a ban, saying "direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate."

One thing is certain: DTC advertising is big.

Some programs — the nightly news and sitcoms aimed at older Americans — get most of their advertising from drugmakers. A Kantar analysis shows 72 percent of commercial breaks on the "CBS Evening News" have at least one pharmaceutical advertisement. Commonly, the ads target a range of conditions that generally affect this demographic, such as dry eyes, erectile dysfunction, pain and constipation.

"A lot of these ads target the caregivers and the children of older folks," said consultant Tom Lom, a former managing partner of Saatchi & Saatchi Consumer Healthcare, which has created ads for pharmaceutical companies.

For years, the DTC industry was mostly focused on drugs that relieved chronic, typically nonfatal afflictions like heartburn (Nexium), allergies (Claritin) and high cholesterol (Lipitor). More recently, Lom said, advertising has focused on cancer and illnesses affecting seniors, such as Alzheimer's disease. Ads for drugs that target constipation caused by other drugs — opioids — hit the scene last year, reflecting the large numbers of people taking painkillers.

In 2016, the top three ads based on total spending were Lyrica, with $313 million; rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira at $303 million; and Eliquis, a treatment for a type of heart arrhythmia, at $186 million, according to Kantar.

Drugmakers don't care "whether it's a rare, expensive drug or a popular, cheap drug," said Amanda Starc, associate professor of strategy at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. "They're looking at the marginal return on advertising. A small number of customers spending a lot or a big number spending a little."

The U.S. is one of two countries — the other is New Zealand — that allow DTC advertising, a long-standing practice that became more common in the mid-1980s after the FDA issued new rules. Most advertising was in print. But more TV advertising began appearing when some of the rules were relaxed a decade later.

Lom said the ads give consumers a "head start" on knowing about drugs that might be available for their ailments, speeding up the consumer education process.