Articles

Consumer Influence to Grow

By Bob Ehrlich, Chairman, DTC Perspectives, Inc.

This article originally appeared in the August 25, 2005 issue of DTC Perspectives, an e-newsletter from DTC Perpsectives, Inc. REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION.

The direct influence of consumers on drug selection is going to grow in coming years. There are several forces at work that will make this happen. DTC, defined broadly as all marketing and promotion programs across all media, will become more important in drug decisions. First, consumers will pay more for their drugs as co-pays increase and tiered formularies become dominant. This will result in drug companies needing to effectively persuade consumers that new branded drugs are worth the price premium. Most therapeutic categories have effective choices that have recently gone from brand to generic status at 30% discounts. Branded drugs like Lipitor and Crestor now have to compete with effective alternatives like Zocor and Pravachol that have gone generic. Second, safety scares have likely made consumers and physicians more wary of new drugs. Calls for an advertising moratorium on new drugs will add fuel to the scare. There will be a greater need to show a compelling reason to consumers to be an early adopter of a drug. The DTC communication must show a clear advantage in order to get consumers to ask their physician for more information. Third, the rising proportion of drug taking baby boomers, who are generally less trusting of physicians, insurers and employers than today's elderly, will make self-education on drugs more important. DTC will be one of those sources of information. DTC to skeptical baby boomers will need to be different. Are drug companies ready for a rising consumer influence? I do not know. My guess is that a legal/regulatory mindset still outweighs consumer centric thinking. That is not to say that both mindsets cannot work in harmony. All of us who have worked in drug companies, however, know that legal/regulatory dominance interferes with common sense consumerism. We all know how long it has it taken to have patient friendly brief summaries. About a third of leading drugs still do not have them. I am confident that drug companies have made significant strides to upgrade their consumer departments, but still at lower levels of management. The winning drug companies of the future will embrace their end user customers; the losers will see consumers as a low priority in the chain of drug decision makers.

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