Direct to consumer pharmaceutical marketing

BACKGROUND: The online pharmacy market is growing, with legitimate online pharmacies offering advantages such as convenience and accessibility. However, this increased demand has attracted malicious actors into this space, leading to the proliferation of illegal vendors that use deceptive techniques to rank higher in search results and pose serious public health risks by dispensing substandard or falsified medicines. Search engine providers have started integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI) into search engine interfaces, which could revolutionize search by delivering more personalized results through a user-friendly experience...

This analysis critically examines the profit-driven marketing of digestive enzymes as over-the-counter (OTC) supplements in the context of India, expressing ethical concerns regarding pharmaceutical companies prioritizing financial gain over genuine public health needs within the lucrative OTC supplement market. The review delves into various enzymes, their mechanisms of action, uses, adverse drug reactions, and provides evidence from various studies. The research method involves the exploration of profit-driven strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies, addressing regulatory challenges, investigating the gap between dietary supplements and pharmaceutical drugs, and emphasizing the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising on self-diagnosis and overuse...

OBJECTIVES: To understand and report on the direct-to-consumer virtual care industry in Canada, focusing on how companies collect, use and value patient data. DESIGN: Qualitative study using situational analysis methodology. SETTING: Canadian for-profit virtual care industry. PARTICIPANTS: 18 individuals employed by or affiliated with the Canadian virtual care industry. METHODS: Semistructured interviews were conducted between October 2021 and January 2022 and publicly available documents on websites of commercial virtual care platforms were retrieved...

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a pharmacologically active metabolite of cannabis that is FDA-approved to treat seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex in children aged one year and older. During clinical trials, CBD caused dose-dependent hepatocellular toxicity at therapeutic doses. The risk for toxicity was increased in patients taking valproate (VPA), another hepatotoxic antiepileptic drug, through an unknown mechanism. With the growing popularity of CBD in the consumer market, an improved understanding of the safety risks associated with CBD is needed to ensure public health...

The continued prevalence of xylazine in the illicit drug market has necessitated development of quick and simple methods for identification, including lateral flow immunoassays (also known as "test strips"), like those frequently used to detect fentanyl. This study explored the drug checking applicability of the first publicly available xylazine test strips (XTS) using four sub-studies: reproducibility (i.e., consistency of positive results in a highly-concentrated xylazine solution); limit of detection on a calibration curve of xylazine concentrations; cross-reactivity against 77 commonly encountered drugs, cutting agents, and other structurally similar compounds; and applicability for analyzing community-acquired samples-where 100 drug residue samples were analyzed using XTS, direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS), and gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS)...

As an economic activity, any medical practice involves greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Japan, healthcare accounts for approximately 5% of GHG emissions estimated based on economic costs. In the medical sector, pharmaceuticals account for a large proportion of these emissions. GHG produced during drug manufacturing is generally estimated in three scopes. Scope 1 encompasses direct emissions from equipment and business activities owned by the company; Scope 2 encompasses indirect emissions from the production of energy used in the company's activities; and Scope 3 encompasses GHG emissions outside the scope of the company's ownership or control but related to its supply chain (i...

The article considers the issue of the restrictions imposed by the government in the 2010s into process of introducing and promoting medications at the market by means of medical representatives. The government decided to formalize relationships of pharmaceutical manufacturers with consumers of medications. On the one hand, such a trend was occurring all over the world and was stimulated by social attacks at Big Pharma under slogan "the conflict of interests". On the other hand, at the Russian pharmaceutical market, the restrictions of direct contacts of pharmaceutical manufacturers with physicians and and pharmaceutists were supported above all by national manufacturers of medicines...

Emerged in the early 2000s, direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has helped consumers access and understand their genetic information without the involvement of a healthcare provider. Unlike traditional clinical-based testing, in which a healthcare provider is responsible for ordering, testing, interpreting, and communicating the results, DTC testing provides valuable insights directly to individuals about their genetic information. It empowers consumers and their families to be proactive about their health and lifestyle...

BACKGROUND: There are only two countries in the world (the United States and New Zealand) that allow the pharmaceutical branch to advertise prescription medication directly to consumers. There is pressure on governments to allow direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for prescription drugs elsewhere too. One argument the industry uses frequently is the claim that exposure to DCTA, through various methods and occasions, is supposed to improve customers' knowledge of a disease and treatment...

The global market of food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products requires continuous tracking of harmful ingredients and microbial contamination for the sake of the safety of both products and consumers as these products greatly dominate the consumer's health, directly or indirectly. The existence, survival, and growth of microorganisms in the product may lead to physicochemical degradation or spoilage and may infect the consumer at another end. It has become a challenge for industries to produce a product that is safe, self-stable, and has high nutritional value, as many factors such as physical, chemical, enzymatic, or microbial activities are responsible for causing spoilage to the product within the due course of time...

With increasing public health awareness and the unprecedented global health crisis, consumers' demand for in vitro diagnostic (IVD) reagents is gradually increasing. However, consumer mistrust remains a significant barrier to purchasing and using IVD products. Pharmaceutical companies and governments prioritizing direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing have recognized the impact of visual packaging elements on consumer perception. Thus, we researched whether visual packaging elements systematically influence consumers' perceived credibility of IVD products' credence attributes, namely, their ability to protect personal and public health...

BACKGROUND: Fentanyl- and methamphetamine-based counterfeit prescription drugs have driven escalating overdose death rates in the US, however their presence in Mexico has not been assessed. Our ethnographic team has conducted longitudinal research focused on illicit drug markets in Northern Mexico since 2018. In 2021-2022, study participants described the arrival of new, unusually potent tablets sold as ostensibly controlled substances, without a prescription, directly from pharmacies that cater to US tourists...

Color is the prime feature directly associated with the consumer's attraction and choice of their food. The flavor, safety, and nutritional value of any food product are directly associated with the food color. Natural and synthetic colorants (dyes and pigments) have diversified applications in various sectors such as food, feed, pharmaceutical, textiles, cosmetics, and others. Concerning the food industry, different types of natural and synthetic colorants are available in the market. Synthetic food colorants have gained popularity as they are highly stable and cheaply available...

BACKGROUND: Historically, pharmaceutical companies have struggled with trust and brand reputation among key stakeholders and have adopted innovative marketing strategies to reach patients directly and rebuild those relationships. Social media influencers are a popular strategy to influence younger demographics, including Generation Z and millennials. It is common for social media influencers to work in paid partnerships with brands; this is a multibillion-dollar industry. Long have patients been active in online health communities and social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, but in recent years, pharmaceutical marketers have noticed the power of patient persuasion and begun to leverage "patient influencers" in brand campaigns...

BACKGROUND: Our ethnographic team has conducted longitudinal research focused on illicit drug markets in Northern Mexico since 2018. In 2021-2022, study participants described the arrival of new, unusually potent tablets sold as ostensibly controlled substances, without a prescription, directly from pharmacies that cater to US tourists. Concurrently, fentanyl- and methamphetamine-based counterfeit prescription drugs have driven escalating overdose death rates in the US, however their presence in Mexico has not been assessed...

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent threat to global health. Antidepressants are consumed in large quantities, with a similar pharmaceutical market share (4.8%) to antibiotics (5%). While antibiotics are acknowledged as the major driver of increasing antibiotic resistance, little attention is paid to the contribution of antidepressants in this process. Here, we demonstrate that antidepressants at clinically relevant concentrations induce resistance to multiple antibiotics, even following short periods of exposure...

Small molecular prodrug-based nanomedicines with high drug-loading efficiency and tumor selectivity have attracted great attention for cancer therapy against solid tumors, including triple negative breast cancers (TNBC). However, abnormal tumor mechanical microenvironment (TMME) severely restricts antitumor efficacy of prodrug nanomedicines by limiting drug delivery and fostering cancer stem cells (CSCs). Herein, we employed carbamate disulfide bridged doxorubicin dimeric prodrug as pharmaceutical ingredient, marketed IR780 iodide as photothermal agent, and biocompatible hydroxyethyl starch-folic acid conjugate as amphiphilic surfactant to prepare a theranostic nanomedicine (FDINs), which could actively target at TNBC 4 T1 tumor tissues and achieve reduction-responsive drug release with high glutathione concentration in cancer cells and CSCs...

Although it is considered that cosmetics do not have side effects, studies have revealed that a significant number of consumers experience side effects. Undesirable effects arising from the use of cosmetic products have created the need for a reporting and evaluation system, which is responsible for some restrictions on the use of cosmetics ingredients and putting into cosmetic regulation effect, called cosmetovigilance. However, the new cosmetovigilance concept needs some updates to become more effective for public health...

Price caps through international reference pricing are widely used worldwide but not so commonly in over-the-counter markets. We study the short-term effects of a price cap regulation for oral contraceptives in Colombia, a market dominated by the presence of several branded generics with multiple active ingredients. Most of the regulated products were fourth-generation contraceptives, and the Colombian health benefits plan only covers second-generation ones, resulting in a de facto over-the-counter market. Our aim is to establish whether the regulation triggered a competitive response within and across product categories, by price levels and regulatory status...

The modeling of chromatographic separations can speed up downstream process development, reducing the time to market and corresponding development costs for new products such as pharmaceuticals. However, calibrating such models by identifying suitable parameter values for mass transport and sorption is a major, time-consuming challenge that can hinder model development and improvement. We therefore designed a new approach based on Bayesian optimization (BayesOpt) and Gaussian processes that reduced the time required to compute relevant chromatography parameters by up to two orders of magnitude compared to a multistart gradient descent and a genetic algorithm...