Ryan Camberdella

Abstract:

I conducted a historical analysis of how direct-to-consumer advertising has changed the U.S. healthcare system. Scholars studying pharmaceutical marketing have shown that a shift was evident in how pharmaceutical companies market their products from physicians to patients in the 1990s (Gilbody, Wilson & Watt, 2004). However, the public was not aware that this form of marketing overlooks the clinical research and educated conclusions from doctors that go into supporting one treatment option over the generic form (Gilbody, Wilson & Watt, 2004). In this study, I looked at the development of direct-to-consumer marketing in the pharmaceutical industry and the negative effects it has on patients as it does not account for what is in their best interest, but rather what would provide the largest return in profit (Malerba and Orsenigo, 2015).