How Much Does Big Pharma Spend on Advertising?

How much does Big Pharma, aka the drug manufacturing industry spend on advertising?

• 24.4% of sales in 2004, or $57 Billion.

A report published in Science Daily in January 2008 showed Big Pharma spends as much as 24.4% of total revenues on advertising in 2004. That’s nearly twice the amount, 13.4% they spent on R&D during the same time period. With total domestic sales of $235 billion in 2004, they spent over $57 billion in advertising.

However, the advertising is productive:

In 2006, Americans bought 42% of the world’s prescribed medicines. We have 5% of the world’s population. - Healthcare Reform: it's our debate, too.

Do you want to participate in the debate about your healthcare system?

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The point here is to encourage more of us to connect, communicate and collaborate to find solutions for our healthcare system.