Big Pharma’s Aggressive Marketing Directly Targeting Consumers to Boost Sales
of High-Priced Blockbusters Comes Under Scrutiny





 



Dose Of Reality: Breaking Down Big Pharma’s Year of Bad Behavior in 2025: Part
II: Big Pharma’s DTC Advertising

Big Pharma’s Aggressive Marketing Directly Targeting Consumers to Boost Sales
of High-Priced Blockbusters Comes Under Scrutiny



With each new year comes a time-honored tradition for Big Pharma: Hiking
prices on hundreds of brand name prescription drugs in the first weeks of
January.



As 2025 winds down, we can look back at a year of increased scrutiny around
Big Pharma’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising — and its role in increasing
costs for American patients, taxpayers and the U.S. health care system in order
to boost sales of high-priced blockbuster drugs, even when they may not deliver
the best clinical value for patients.



In the first installment of our year-end series, we reviewed Big Pharma’s
egregious pricing practices in 2025, including continuing to hike prices faster
than the rate of inflation and bringing new drugs to market with skyrocketing
launch prices.



Get a Dose of Reality on Big Pharma’s DTC advertising in 2025:



BIG PHARMA SPENT MASSIVE SUMS ON DTC ADVERTISING IN RECENT YEARS



Pharmaceutical Company Spending on Advertising Grows from $12 Billion in 2015
to $39 Billion in 2025



According to a March report
<[link removed]> from
AdWeek, the pharmaceutical industry’s “ad spend has grown from $12.2 billion in
2015 to an estimated $39 billion in 2025.” The report noted “[d]uring the same
10-year period, the pharmaceutical industry’s share of total U.S. ad spend
expanded from 6.8 percent to a forecasted 9.8 percent.”



Big Pharma Spent $3.3 Billion Advertising Just 10 Brand Name Drugs in 2024



In June, Fierce Pharma released a report
<[link removed]>
examining the brand name drugs with the biggest ad spend in 2024. For just
these 10 brand name drugs, the pharmaceutical industry spent a whopping $3.3
billion on marketing and advertising in 2024.



BIG PHARMA’S BIG SPENDING ON MARKETING TARGETING CONSUMERS INCREASES DRUG COSTS



CSRxP Analysis Finds Big Pharma’s DTC Advertising Costs Taxpayers More than
$1.5 Billion Every Year



In March, CSRxP conducted a study
<[link removed]>
that found Big Pharma spent nearly $14 billion on DTC advertising in a single
year, and that American taxpayers lose more than one billion each year in tax
revenue as pharmaceutical companies write off these marketing expenses to
further pad their bottom line. The analysis also cites pre-existing expert
research confirming Big Pharma’s staggering spending on DTC advertising
increases prescription drug spending in the U.S. The study includes
pharmaceutical giants AbbVie, Amgen, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Eli
Lilly, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Merck
and Pfizer.

* The analysis found taxing or prohibiting DTC ads for the ten largest
pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. would result in increased federal tax
revenue between $1.5 and $1.7 billion per year.
BIG PHARMA SIDESTEPPING DTC GUARDRAILS VIA NON-TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS



Brand Name Drug Companies Sidestep Guardrails Meant to Protect American
Patients Through DTC Marketing Strategies



In November, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network
publishedresearch
<[link removed]>
analyzing the staggering expansion of Big Pharma’s DTC advertising across
non-traditional mediums like social media, which are less subject to oversight
and regulatory guardrails than traditional media like television and radio. The
study found brand name drug makers are increasingly investing in influencer
content and digital strategies that look like ordinary personal stories or
health tips but function as marketing designed to further push high-priced,
blockbuster products.



The researchers analyzed “740 high-engagement, regulator-relevant social media
posts that had amassed more than 57.5 million views as of January 2025,”
including a large number from “lifestyle/celebrity influencers.” They found,
“efficacy claims were made in 511 posts (69.1%),” while “information on risks
or adverse effects was mentioned in 247 (33.4%) of all 740 posts.” In addition,
only 32.3 percent of “posts making efficacy claims… included any information on
risks or adverse effects.”



The study highlights how this playbook allows Big Pharma to sidestep
guardrails that apply to television or radio advertising set by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These
guardrails, designed to protect consumers from misleading claims and arm them
with information to best make health care decisions with their doctor, are not
being applied to Big Pharma’s algorithm-boosted digital strategies meant to
increase sales of high-priced brand name drugs through social media. As a
result, millions of Americans are being exposed to Big Pharma’s aggressive
marketing tactics without guardrails on claims, disclosures about risks — or
even, in some instances, the fact that it’s paid marketing at all.



TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CALLS OUT BIG PHARMA’S DTC ADVERTISING



FDA Commissioner: Big Pharma’s Billions of Dollars Spent on DTC Advertising
“Would be Better Spent on Lowering Drug Prices"



In September, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary wrote an op-ed, published in The
New York Times
<[link removed]>
, detailing how Big Pharma’s staggering spending on advertising directly
targeting consumers misleads American patients and increases prescription drug
spending. Commissioner Makary also called for reforms and highlighted the
bipartisan momentum to hold brand name drug companies accountable.



“As a physician, I’ve had patients walk into my office to ask about medicines
they saw advertised. Rarely did the patient actually meet clinical criteria for
the drug, but sometimes I would learn that they got it anyway from another
source,” Makary wrote. “…The ads are also generally limited to expensive
medications, not generic or biosimilar alternatives that are orders of
magnitude less expensive. The United States leads the world in drug spending. A
nonstop bombardment of ads encouraging medications over lifestyle changes is
not a path to making America healthy again.”



“Whether driven by patient protection concerns or fiscal responsibility
principles, lawmakers across the political spectrum recognize that America’s
unique position as one of only two countries allowing widespread prescription
drug advertising demands serious reform,” Makary said. “Over the last several
years, drug companies have increasingly gamed the system. Those days are over.
We are taking drug marketing claims seriously and making our regulatory
standards transparent. We are restoring honesty and accountability in drug
advertising to protect patients and rebuild public trust. The billions of
dollars drug companies spend on advertising would be better spent on lowering
drug prices for American consumers.”



HHS Secretary RFK Jr. Calls for Reining in Big Pharma’s Staggering Spending on
DTC Advertising



In May, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. called for reining in Big Pharma’s DTC advertising of prescription
drugs during aninterview <[link removed]> on “
Special Report with Bret Baier” on The Fox News Channel.



“I met with pharmaceutical companies yesterday and had a very frank discussion
with them on ways to limit TV commercials,” Kennedy said. “When you advertise a
pharmaceutical product, it’s the government that is the one most likely going
to pay for that product… you get a tax deduction to put that ad on TV, so that
federal taxpayers are paying for the ad, then they’re paying for the product.”



“We’re the only nation in the world that allows that kind of advertising on
TV,” Kennedy continued. “We’re a complete outlier. There’s one other country
like New Zealand that allows limited [DTC advertising] but nothing like we do.”



AMERICAN VOTERS SUPPORT INCREASED PRICE TRANSPARENCY AROUND BIG PHARMA’S DTC
ADVERTISING



Fabrizio Ward Survey Finds American Voters Overwhelming Hold Big Pharma
Companies Responsible for High Drug Prices



In February, CSRxP released the results
<[link removed]>
of public opinion research, conducted by Fabrizio Ward, showing American
voters overwhelmingly hold Big Pharma responsible for high prescription drug
prices and support market-based solutions to lower prices by holding big drug
companies accountable, including for gaming the U.S. patent system to block
competition.



The survey also found that voters overwhelmingly support requiring drug
companies to disclose the amount taxpayers paid to support the research and
development of their drugs (88 percent) and requiring drug companies to list
the price of their drugs in their direct-to-consumer advertising (86 percent).



“Results from the new national survey of voters…show broad and overwhelmingly
bipartisan support for policy solutions to lower the cost of prescription drugs
by addressing pricing and anti-competitive practices from drug companies,”
Fabrizio and fellow pollster Bob Ward wrote in amemo
<[link removed]>
on their findings. “The electorate, including equal numbers of Trump and
Harris Voters, holds intensely unfavorable views of drug companies. By wide
margins, voters are very concerned about the cost of Rx drugs, hold drug
companies responsible and clearly identify drug company profits as the driver
of high drug costs.”



As policymakers return to Washington in 2026, they should take note of the
pharmaceutical industry’s continued egregious pricing practices and work to
advance bipartisan, market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable.



Read our first blog in this series on Big Pharma’s egregious price hikes and
increasing launch prices in 2025HERE
<[link removed]>
.



Learn more about market-based solutions to hold Big Pharma accountable and
lower prescription drug pricesHERE <[link removed]>.



And stay tuned as we continue to review Big Pharma’s bad behavior from this
past year throughout the week.



###

































Copyright © 2019 Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing
Our address is 1341 G St NW, #1100, Washington, DC xxxxxx


This email was sent to [email protected]. To unsubscribe please click
here.
<[link removed]>