An Empirical Note on Perceptions of Patients and Physicians in Direct-to-Consumer Promotion of Pharmaceutical Products

Abstract

Direct promotion of pharmaceutical products to patients is not legal in India. Internet healthcare websites, however, have rendered this law as merely a paper-feast. Patients today increasingly flock to websites to find health related information, including those related to drugs. This paper attempts to identify the differences in the perception of physicians and patients in this context. This is an important issue as differences in perception may result in newer conflict-points between patients and physicians. The study is based on a survey involving 400 patients and 200 physicians. The results indicate that major differences exist in the beliefs held by physicians' and patients' vis-à-vis merits and demerits of DTC-promotion through online-health related websites. As patients and physicians operate as a team while health-solutions are made available to the patients, such major differences in their beliefs regarding the merits and demerits of DTC-promotion may result in emergence of fault-lines in their relationship.