Physicians’ attitude towards direct to consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs

Abstract

Purpose Pharmaceutical marketers and manufactures create hype of demand among patients towards a specific brand of drug or disease through drug advertisements. It induces the patients to seek additional information of the brand and ask for its prescription generation by the physician. The paper aims to determine the attitude of the physicians towards direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) and to examine the extent of patients’ request for a specific brand which leads to actual prescription generation. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative study, data was collected from field setting general practicing Doctors/Physicians in the leading hospitals. Quantitative data was collected from physicians working in leading hospitals. Doctors were selected on judgmental basis with high patient turnover. Sample size consists of 250 doctors, and questionnaire were adopted from two authors. Attitude of physicians towards DTCA and information inquired by the patient are two independent variables, whereas prescription generation by the physicians is dependent variable. SPSS was tool for data analysis. Findings Physicians have positive attitude towards DTCA and information provision to patient and consider it supplementary in overall health-care system. Advertising induces patients to visit physician and seek appropriate treatment and get induced to ask for further information. Research limitations/implications Time and resources were limited. Practical implications First, it contributes towards knowledge, second, it shows the importance of DTCA and its impact on prescription generation and, third, it will help in devising drug advertising policy. Social implications Highlights the issue are of not only misuse of drugs but also malpractice of drug prescription. Originality/value First, it explores the impact of the attitude of physicians along with the patients’ request on prescription generation behaviour. Second, it examines the impact of inquiring additional information about specific brand from the physician that might lead to the prescription generation. Finally, there is no study from the developing countries like Pakistan.