ARTYKUŁ

Tomasz Hermanowski, Aleksandra Drozdowska

Opodatkowanie Reklamy Leków
2012-09-18

Tax on advertising of medicines
Pharmaceutical companies compete with each other pushing up promotional expenditures. The amount spent on pharmaceutical advertising versus research and development is central to the debate around whether the pharmaceutical industry is mainly driven by innovation or marketing. Average spending on marketing in various sectors of economy are approximately 2% of sales. In the case of the pharmaceutical industry, this percentage is much higher (approximately 15–25% of sales). Expenditures on advertising is incorporated in the final price of the drug, and thus affect the amount paid by patients or health insurer. Many scientific institutions support the introduction of tax on promotional activities, especially if the tax is used for funding independent research, disseminating noncommercial information about drugs, or for creation of patients’ registries. Adjusting the demand side by introducing such taxation has been successfully tried in some countries.
Keywords: pharmaceutical marketing, advertising of medicines, Garattini tax, independent research.
© Farm Pol, 2012, 68(8): 526-530