Direct-to-consumer branding — Europe and Asia

The extension of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs beyond the US marketplace to other commercially attractive world markets such as Japan and Europe is an intensifying battleground for change. Advocate and reactionary interest groups continue to line up either side of the debate, which is complicated by the political and health professional conservatism that surrounds the business and economic arguments. Pressure is building within the fast-growing pharmaceutical industry now valued at $350 billion worldwide. At its simplest, it is a contest between free-market thinking and the various complexities of socialized welfare philosophy and health precedents that have been structurally unchallenged for the past 50 years. With so much at stake, it is perhaps inevitable that, outside the USA, the DTC advertising debate has been highlighted by more polarized opinion than consensus argument, and the volume and tone of the debate more emotionally charged than rationally centred.