Cautious drugmakers spend 4% of advertising on-line

US drugmakers are afraid of advertising on the Internet, because the Food and Drug Administration has not made it clear what regulations they would need to follow, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal's health blog. Internet search engine giant Google, hosting an event for pharmaceutical company marketing executives in New York, released data indicating that only 4% of the sector's advertising expenditure is allocated to on-line media, with print and television outlets continuing to dominate.

However, Google advertising sales manager, Mary Ann Belliveau, told the WSJ that drugmakers have progressed from simply wanting to own rights to certain keyword searches to a more active approach. Partly, this reflects the realization that patients often first check on-line for information about a disease before contacting a physician. The search engine company has even entered an agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to alert the federal agency if the number of searches for influenza-related key words reaches a critical level, suggesting the onset of an epidemic.

Recent data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that, despite a slowdown, second-quarter growth for on-line advertising across all business sectors was 12%, with Google's market share expanding (Marketletter October 27). Meanwhile, the economic downturn in the USA and elsewhere has resulted in cut backs to pharmaceutical advertising in the traditional media.