Medical Marketing In The U.S. Has Boomed Over Past Two Decades–With Meager Oversight To Keep It In Check
A new analysis of marketing data from the FDA, Medicare, other federal and state agencies, private companies and medical research finds a 69 percent increase, to $29.9 billion, over a recent 20-year period. "Marketing drives more treatments, more testing" that patients don't always need, said Dr. Steven Woloshin, a Dartmouth College health policy expert.
Stat:
Medical Marketing Exploded Since 1997, Raising Questions On Industry Influence
A sweeping analysis of medical marketing in the U.S. — from drug promotions aimed at consumers and physicians to disease awareness campaigns, hospital services, and laboratory testing — found a 69 percent increase, to $29.9 billion, over a recent 20-year period. But despite policies designed to limit industry influence over the health care system, there appeared to be insufficient regulatory oversight. The fastest rise in industry marketing was spent on direct-to-consumer ads, which increased from $2.1 billion, or 12 percent, of all marketing expenditures in 1997, to $9.6 billion, or 32 percent of total spending in 2016, according to the analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Silverman, 1/8)
The Associated Press:
US Medical Marketing Reaches $30 Billion, Drug Ads Top Surge
Ads for prescription drugs appeared 5 million times in just one year, capping a recent surge in U.S. medical marketing, a new analysis found. The advertisements for various medicines showed up on TV, newspapers, online sites and elsewhere in 2016. Their numbers soared over 20 years as part of broad health industry efforts to promote drugs, devices, lab tests and even hospitals. (Tanner, 1/8)
Kaiser Health News:
Health Care Industry Spends $30B A Year Pushing Its Wares, From Drugs To Stem Cell Treatment
“Marketing drives more testing. It drives more treatments. It’s a big part of why health care is so expensive, because it’s the fancy, high-tech stuff things that get marketed,” said Steven Woloshin, co-director of the Center for Medicine and Media at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. His study captured only a portion of the many ways that drug companies, hospitals and labs promote themselves. (Szabo, 1/8)
WBUR:
Study Shows Spending For Drug Marketing Skyrocketed Over Past 2 Decades
The study, which was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was co-authored by Dr. Steven Woloshin and his late wife, Dr. Lisa Schwartz.Here's our conversation with Dr. Woloshin on Radio Boston, lightly edited. (Borchers and Alston, 1/8)
