What I recall about the roi on DTC is this: when there’s no competition you get about $4 in sales for every $1 spent on DTC. When the class matures, the DTC ads drive the class of drugs but ROI at the brand level falls to parity over time.

Nice post. Thanks for the mention.

The pharma marketing ROI issue — which is much larger than a single moth — is not going to die. It behooves the industry to stop wasting money on effective DTC campaigns while laying off sales people and other employees, especially as the U.S. economy continues its free fall into recession!

John Mack

Speaking of (not) which, every time I see the flomax guys bouncing along on little racing bike seats, I get a little uncomfortable. The kayak works better, but there’s always the danger of being rammed by Dr. Jarvik on the open water.

In seriousness, I think it’s interesting that the free market is demonstrating that, at least in some cases, DTC doesn’t have powers over us to make us do the bidding of the evil drug companies. Indeed, maybe we have the power to discuss with our doctor whether we have RLS or a simple case of the jimmy legs.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get home–I’ve got that Viva Viagra song in my head.