Has prescription drug advertising increased massively in recent decades?

Advertising for prescription medicines aimed directly at patients, as opposed to health care professionals, has increased massively over the last two decades. This is due in part to regulations introduced in 1997 by the Food and Drug Administration making it easier for drug companies to advertise on television and radio.

Estimates of how much industry spending has increased vary, depending on how expenditures for advertising are determined. A study by the Southern Economic Journal found that direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs increased from $150 million in 1993 to more than $4 billion in 2010, a nearly 30-fold increase. By 2016, another study by two Dartmouth doctors estimated consumer ad spending was up to $6 billion—out of a total pharmaceutical industry marketing spend of $29.9 billion, much of which is still directed at prescribing doctors.