Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) in Pharmaceutical Industry: An Inquiry from Public Policy to Practice and Consumers’ Perspective

Abstract

This research paper has addressed an explicit gap in the literature of pharmaceutical industry and
healthcare management for a marketing promotion technique, direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), which
has remained to be an academically neglected area by the scholars of Pakistan. Thus, the purpose of this
research was to unearth the prevalence of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of over-the-counter (OTC)
or non-prescription medicines and to assess its impact on consumer purchase behavior. Mixing of two
qualitative methods comprising meta synthesis of literature followed by twenty five in-depth qualitative
interviews with medical doctors, pharmacists, drug policy developers cum regulators and marketers of OTC
medicines, and patients in Karachi-Pakistan (comprising medical doctors, pharmacists, and healthcare
marketers) took place. Samples were selected through snowball sampling method, while the data was
analyzed through thematic analysis. The research presents quite useful insights as it has revealed that DTCA
is exploited by certain unscrupulous circles, which are attempting to market their unlicensed and unregistered
medicines while with prior approval, federal drug authority only allows DTCA for only registered OTC
medicines and some multivitamin complexes. It was concluded that DTCA has a profound influence only on
perceptions and need recognition stage out of the five stages of consumer purchasing model. Thus,
pharmaceutical and health industry experts are advised to change their attitude towards DTCA in Pakistan
and must avail it as useful means of promotion and branding of medicines in Pakistan in conjunction with
such other tools.