Boom In Medical Book Sales To Public

The health care debate and the aging US population have combined with the trend for consumers taking a more active role in their health care decisions to produce a boom in sales of medical reference books to the general public.

For example, the Physician's Desk Reference has expanded its retail distribution network and shipped about 120,000 copies of its 1995 edition, up from 97,800 in 1994. Projected sales for 1995 are 640,000, with half a million sent to doctors free. The book still makes money for its publishers, Medical Economics; Robert Kennet of the American Medical Foundation notes that drug companies pay for each drug included. The PDR lists all Food and Drug Administration-approved literature on over 2,800 prescription drugs, has brand-name and generic indexes and a cross-referenced index of color photos. Its information is not edited or rewritten.

Medical Economics is also setting up a library of consumer books using the PDR brand name. Its 1993 PDR Family Guide to Prescription Drugs, offering simple versions of FDA labels, has sold 250,000 copies to date, the PDR Family Guide to Women's Health and Prescription drugs came out in September 1994 and a third volume in the series will appear this fall.