According to today's Financial Times (FT), executives from UK pharma companies GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca told a UK parliamentary committee they did not believe it was appropriate (my emphasis) for Britain to allow drug companies to advertise directly to UK consumers.

This is quote surprising, coming as it does from two companies that top the list of DTC advertisers in the US. DTC spending for Nexium and Crestor -- AstraZeneca drugs -- totaled $228 million in the first 2 quarters of 2004. They were #1 and #3 on the list. Flonase and Wellbutrin -- GlaxoSimithKline drugs -- were #7 and #9!

To put this into context: It is estimated that a total of $5 billion dollars will be spent in 2004 on DTC advertising in the US. (Some DTC proponents, such as the editors at DTC Perspectives magazine, are very defensive about this number as more and more people criticize DTC. They claim it is based on an advertising "list price" which pharma companies rarely pay and that the real figure is more like $2.5 billion. As one US Senator once said, "A $billion here and a $billion there, pretty soon we are talking about real money.")

The remarks by Glaxo and AstraZeneca are also surprising because DTC is vigorously defended by drug companies here in the US. Just a few days ago I reported that a Glaxo spokesperson in London claimed that it was tough to sell ED drugs without the help of consumer advertising (see "ED Drug Sales Limp").

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