Pharma Ad Spending Down as New Drugs Focus on Smaller Patient Groups

Generally speaking, the reduction in pharma advertising reported by TNS is bad news. The primary reason is a reduction in new drug approvals and product pipelines. However, for the products that are gaining approval, many target specific niche patient populations, and this trend will likely continue. While this trend is bad for large scale mass media, the targeting of niche patient populations is very good for web-sites reaching unique patient populations such as our partners Healingwell.com (crohns), Aids.org (HIV) and Imaginis.com (breast cancer). Keep focusing on specific disease communities, as these are the vehicles of the future for pharmaceutical marketers to communicate with their patient consumers.