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Patients and doctors need to know about a medicine to prescribe it. In order to increase brand awareness, drug companies can either advertise to or incentivize

Patients and doctors need to know about a medicine to prescribe it. In order to increase brand awareness, drug companies can either advertise to or incentivize (free trips to conferences, consulting gigs) doctors to prescribe a drug or get patients to directly ask their doctor for a drug.

Retric 5y ago
Few new drugs get invented each year and most are either slight modifications to existing drugs or highly specialized. Doctors can easily keep up with zero advertising needed. Drug companies advertise to convince doctors that drug X is better than it actually is. Which is obviously bad for patients who are better served by an objective approach to prescription drugs.
- naturalauction 5y ago
  Oh I agree that it's a complete racket that hurts patients, I just wanted to provide some rationale from the drug company's perspective.
- Anarch157a 5y ago
  I wouldn't like to be severed by a drug. I prefer my body to stay in one piece, thank you. But I agree that doctors don't need advertisement. Just publish a technical magazine 2 to 4 times a year with a technical description of the drugs available and let the doctors make the call.
- refurb 5y ago
  I’ve interacted with a lot of doctors in my job and no, most doctors aren’t that aware. You’ll get the doctors involved in research who know all about the drugs years before they are approved, but those are a handful. Like most people who have jobs you focus on the here-and-now and while “yeah I’d love to read up on that new drug, but I don’t have time”. I worked on one drug where we had to go to and tell them to stop buying it (they were still buying lots and if they return it a year later it would mess up our accounting) because there were far superior drugs available. We’re talking malpractice not to use the new drug. They thanked us for letting them know.
  - sizzle 5y ago
    The last part is shocking to say the least. It’s hard as a patient to imagine a doctor, seen as medical authority figures, have such a passive approach to the latest drug efficacy w.r.t. their prescribed treatments. That’s why teaching hospitals have more modern technology and pulse on the cutting edge.
dan1234 5y ago
Doctors do, but I'm not sure patients will ever have enough knowledge to be able to make an informed choice.
moksly 5y ago
Do doctors prescribe brands in America? Here they’ll prescribe you with the working substance, and unless it’s still patented (which most of them aren’t) then you’ll just get offered the cheapest brand at the pharmacy by default. I guess commercials would still work if you branded yourself hard enough, but our culture is more like the Velcro thing, where when people ask for a “panodil” or a “pinex” they don’t really care if it’s actually a panodil or a pinex as long as it’s a headache pill with that the same sort or working chemical.
- theonemind 5y ago
  They often prescribe brands in the sense that they will literally write the brand name in their own hand on the prescription, and that is technically literally exactly the prescription. However, the pharmacy can substitute a perfectly equivalent drug on its own recognizance based on the doctor's prescription, but the distinction seems to technically exist. (The pharmacist position takes a lot of study and licensing as well.) I believe a doctor can or could write "no substitutions", but things aren't quite bad enough that a doctor would risk their license to do that to bolster sales for a brand or block a patient from receiving generic medication--they'd need some kind of concrete reason, like knowing or suspecting a patient is allergic to an inactive ingredient. (It's all theory, because our doctors are overworked and would never pay that kind of attention.)
  - sizzle 5y ago
    Pretty sure insurance companies have it down to a science to cover all cheap generics over brand name and through you through bureaucratic hell with pre authorization forms until you are beaten into submission to take the cheap version (more $$$ for insurance company)
- Mauricebranagh 5y ago
  For some specialised conditions in the UK - they actually do prescribe exactly the brand/version. For my posttransplant meds some of the are explicitly "must" be this version. Also some meds (anti rejection) are dispensed direct from the hospital
- 5y ago

Retric 5y ago

Few new drugs get invented each year and most are either slight modifications to existing drugs or highly specialized. Doctors can easily keep up with zero advertising needed. Drug companies advertise to convince doctors that drug X is better than it actually is. Which is obviously bad for patients who are better served by an objective approach to prescription drugs.

naturalauction 5y ago
Oh I agree that it's a complete racket that hurts patients, I just wanted to provide some rationale from the drug company's perspective.
Anarch157a 5y ago
I wouldn't like to be severed by a drug. I prefer my body to stay in one piece, thank you. But I agree that doctors don't need advertisement. Just publish a technical magazine 2 to 4 times a year with a technical description of the drugs available and let the doctors make the call.
refurb 5y ago
I’ve interacted with a lot of doctors in my job and no, most doctors aren’t that aware. You’ll get the doctors involved in research who know all about the drugs years before they are approved, but those are a handful. Like most people who have jobs you focus on the here-and-now and while “yeah I’d love to read up on that new drug, but I don’t have time”. I worked on one drug where we had to go to and tell them to stop buying it (they were still buying lots and if they return it a year later it would mess up our accounting) because there were far superior drugs available. We’re talking malpractice not to use the new drug. They thanked us for letting them know.
- sizzle 5y ago
  The last part is shocking to say the least. It’s hard as a patient to imagine a doctor, seen as medical authority figures, have such a passive approach to the latest drug efficacy w.r.t. their prescribed treatments. That’s why teaching hospitals have more modern technology and pulse on the cutting edge.

dan1234 5y ago

Doctors do, but I'm not sure patients will ever have enough knowledge to be able to make an informed choice.

moksly 5y ago

Do doctors prescribe brands in America? Here they’ll prescribe you with the working substance, and unless it’s still patented (which most of them aren’t) then you’ll just get offered the cheapest brand at the pharmacy by default. I guess commercials would still work if you branded yourself hard enough, but our culture is more like the Velcro thing, where when people ask for a “panodil” or a “pinex” they don’t really care if it’s actually a panodil or a pinex as long as it’s a headache pill with that the same sort or working chemical.

theonemind 5y ago
They often prescribe brands in the sense that they will literally write the brand name in their own hand on the prescription, and that is technically literally exactly the prescription. However, the pharmacy can substitute a perfectly equivalent drug on its own recognizance based on the doctor's prescription, but the distinction seems to technically exist. (The pharmacist position takes a lot of study and licensing as well.) I believe a doctor can or could write "no substitutions", but things aren't quite bad enough that a doctor would risk their license to do that to bolster sales for a brand or block a patient from receiving generic medication--they'd need some kind of concrete reason, like knowing or suspecting a patient is allergic to an inactive ingredient. (It's all theory, because our doctors are overworked and would never pay that kind of attention.)
- sizzle 5y ago
  Pretty sure insurance companies have it down to a science to cover all cheap generics over brand name and through you through bureaucratic hell with pre authorization forms until you are beaten into submission to take the cheap version (more $$$ for insurance company)
Mauricebranagh 5y ago
For some specialised conditions in the UK - they actually do prescribe exactly the brand/version. For my posttransplant meds some of the are explicitly "must" be this version. Also some meds (anti rejection) are dispensed direct from the hospital
5y ago