How Powerful are Drug Ads? Ask Hormone Replacement Therapy Manufacturers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on hormone replacement therapy rates today, based on an embargoed article in a Women's Health Initiative research project. The bottom line is that after the July 2002 shutdown of estrogen plus progestin therapy in WHI, due to results showing that standard-dose Prempro increase the risk of all sorts of things, and provided no benefit, promotional activities for hormone replacement therapy slowed dramatically across the board. The impact of the slowdown in promotion is incredible - a massive drop in prescriptions and use of all HRT, in direct correlation to spending on advertisements. No, drug ads don't matter a lot at all. Nope. Trust us ...