Pharma marketing

Read it this way Spend rose in every year shown, from $5.8 billion in 2016 to $7.6 billion in 2022, but the jump between 2018 and 2021 crosses a change in data source, from GAO's analysis to Vivvix's ad-tracking, so that particular jump's steepness should not be read as a single continuous trend. The three missing years, 2019, 2020, and 2023 to 2025, mean this chart cannot show whether the pandemic itself caused any dip. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

Caveat The two trackers use different methodologies and are not perfectly comparable year to year. Read this as directional evidence that DTC spend has stayed in the $6 to $8 billion range and grown. No citable total was verified for 2019, 2020, or 2023 to 2025, so those years are omitted.

GAO-21-380 and Vivvix / Fierce Pharma · 2016-2022 · source

Read it this way Direct-to-consumer spending went from $2.1 billion to $9.6 billion while total medical marketing went from $17.7 billion to $29.9 billion, so DTC's own share of total marketing spend, shown in the table, nearly tripled from 11.9 percent to 32 percent between 1997 and 2016. That shift in composition, not just the size increase, is the more consequential story here. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

JAMA, Medical Marketing in the United States 1997 to 2016 · 1997-2016 · source

Read it this way The 'rest of medical marketing' bar grew only modestly, from $15.6 billion to $20.3 billion, while DTC's dollar figure more than quadrupled from $2.1 billion to $9.6 billion over the same span. DTC grew off a smaller base, so its share of the total climbed from 11.9 percent to 32 percent even though the rest of the industry kept growing too, not shrinking. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

JAMA, Medical Marketing in the United States 1997 to 2016 · 1997-2016 · source

Read it this way The ad count exploded from 79,000 in 1997 to 4.6 million in 2016, and the 663,000 TV commercials alone outnumber the entire 1997 ad count more than eight times over. This chart counts ad volume, not ad spend, so it shows the reach of the message multiplying even faster than the dollars behind it. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

JAMA, Medical Marketing in the United States 1997 to 2016 · 1997-2016 · source

Read it this way Campaign count grew from 44 to 401 between 1997 and 2016, while their combined spend rose far less steeply, from $177 million to $430 million. That pattern points to many more campaigns launched at a lower average cost each, not a handful of campaigns getting far more expensive. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

JAMA, Medical Marketing in the United States 1997 to 2016 · 1997-2016 · source

Read it this way AbbVie's $156.4 million in general payments in 2024 leads this list, nearly double AstraZeneca's $79.3 million in second place. The caveat matters here: Pfizer sits low on this ranking at $42.7 million but reported $626.2 million in research payments the same year, a reminder that this chart ranks only the marketing-adjacent payment types, not each company's total industry spending. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

Caveat Research payments are excluded because they are not marketing spend, and they dwarf general payments for most of these firms. For example Pfizer reported $626.2 million in research payments versus $42.7 million in general payments in 2024.

CMS, Open Payments FY2025 Report (Program Year 2024) · 2024 · source

Read it this way General payments dipped sharply in 2020, to $2.19 billion from $3.72 billion the year before, then recovered and have held roughly flat between $3.27 billion and $3.84 billion since 2021. The company ranking in the bar chart above is a snapshot of how that roughly $3.3 billion total splits by manufacturer in the most recent year, not a claim about the whole payment history. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

CMS, Open Payments FY2025 Report to Congress · 2018-2024 · source

Read it this way Advertising aimed at patients, $7.6 billion in 2022, is more than twice the size of general payments made directly to clinicians, $3.33 billion in 2024. These two figures must not be added together or treated as the same kind of spending: they come from different years and different data sources, so this chart shows relative scale between two channels, not a combined marketing total. Use this chart to identify which influence channel is being shown and why the recommendation keeps advertising, clinician payments, and price context separate.

Caveat These two figures must not be summed. DTC advertising ($7.6B) is 2022 Vivvix ad-tracking. Open Payments general payments ($3.33B) is 2024 federal disclosure data. Different years and different methodologies.

Vivvix / Fierce Pharma and CMS Open Payments · 2022-2024 · source