ABSTRACT
Global sales for the pharmaceutical industry are projected to reach about $645 billion in 2006. Industry-sponsored continuing medical education (CME), which poses an opportunity for the pharmaceutical industry to promote its products, can be well received by doctors as it saves them from having to pay for it. Turning CME into a marketing tool of the drug industry is the main complaint against industry-sponsored CME. Drug companies spent $448 million advertising their products in medical journals in the USA in 2003. In hospitals and doctors' offices, sales representatives, known as "detailers", talk to doctors about the pharmaceutical industry's products and encourage doctors to prescribe them. Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) is a form of advertising of prescription drugs that is directed at the general public. The marketing experts working for the pharmaceutical companies have clearly come to the conclusion that DTCA is effective at boosting sales.
