Is DTC Just a Way to Increase Drug Prices?
Drug companies advertise for the same reason every other company and industry advertises: to increase sales with a view to increasing profits. The consumer benefit is that as competition grows, prices usually fall. By contrast, in the absence of marketing prices would not go down, but up. Just consider under which scenario a manufacturer is more likely to charge high prices for low quality: where there is no advertising and consumers have no way to comparison-shop without taking their own time to go from store to store to compare price and quality, or where advertising takes that information directly to the consumer? It is not advertising that increases the price of products, it’s the lack of it. High prices thrive in an atmosphere of ignorance. If critics want to see the price of prescription drugs fall, they should encourage even more advertising and competition. The Missing Ingredient in the Prescription Drug Market: Value As long as patients are insulated from the cost of medical c
