Merck believes that Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising contributes to greater public awareness about conditions and diseases, as well as available treatments and preventive vaccines. We also believe DTC advertising can help increase the number of patients appropriately diagnosed and treated, which could have enormous public health benefits. Under-diagnosis and under-treatment of chronic conditions remain important public health concerns in the United States. Merck medicines address many therapeutic categories that have real unmet medical needs such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, and asthma. DTC advertising can be a useful tool to educate the public about these conditions and can encourage consumers to speak with their doctors about them.
These beliefs drive the design of all DTC advertising, including broadcast, print, internet, and other media, at Merck. As a result, Merck advertises its medicines directly to consumers when it thinks that such advertising will increase awareness of a condition and available treatments, increase diagnosis of that condition, and provide information on a treatment option currently offered by Merck so that patients can have a discussion with their physician. Ultimately, the decision of what treatment, if any, a patient receives rests with the doctor and patient.
Merck strives to enable consumers to achieve better health outcomes by delivering accurate, relevant information on disease prevention, identification, and treatment in an understandable manner. In order to remain true to this goal, Merck follows a set of guiding principles when engaging in DTC advertising. The information provided in our advertising campaigns should allow consumers to:
- Understand that an option is available to treat a diagnosed condition, including benefits, risks, and side effects of that treatment
- Understand how and where to gain access to treatment
- More confidently engage in dialogue with their health care provider.
Additional practices followed by Merck that lead to high quality DTC advertising include a commitment to provide patient information for consumers in a clear, easy-to-read format. Merck has a long-standing policy to voluntarily submit new DTC advertising campaigns to FDA for pre-review. Merck waits until it receives a response from FDA prior to running the advertising campaign and modifies the advertising consistent with any written comments received from FDA.
Merck carries out comprehensive programs to educate physicians and other prescribers about a new product before commencing product-specific DTC broadcast advertising. In 2008, Merck adopted a policy requiring a minimum six month time period following the approval of a new product before launching DTC broadcast advertising.
Merck believes that disease awareness programs are another important way to inform consumers about conditions and encourage them to see their health care provider. Campaigns aimed at informing patients about human papillomavirus (HPV), cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cholesterol and risk factors associated with them are recent examples of Merck patient programs that inform and motivate consumers to take action to improve their health.
Merck believes that Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising contributes to greater public awareness about conditions and diseases, as well as available treatments and preventive vaccines. We also believe DTC advertising can help increase the number of patients appropriately diagnosed and treated, which could have enormous public health benefits. Under-diagnosis and under-treatment of chronic conditions remain important public health concerns in the United States. Merck medicines address many therapeutic categories that have real unmet medical needs such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, and asthma. DTC advertising can be a useful tool to educate the public about these conditions and can encourage consumers to speak with their doctors about them.
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