Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription medications is one manifestation of the growing significance that pharmaceutical companies attribute to patients. Because most studies of DTCA impact have used hypothetical products and predictions of behavior, however, the value of this marketing strategy is not well understood. Thus, this study's purpose was to assess the relationship between existence of an informational DTCA campaign for a newly-marketed prescription medication and new prescription volume.
Prescriber-specific new prescription data and time-series analysis were used to construct a time-series regression model. A model with lagged sales and a first-order moving-average noise process was deemed most appropriate, suggesting that DTCA was effective in generating new prescriptions while the campaign was in effect, with residual but declining effects after discontinuation. Cost-effectiveness calculations indicated that the DTCA campaign generated approximately $22 million in new and refill prescriptions.
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