Nearly every major research-based pharmaceutical company today offers a Prescription Drug Patient Assistance Program which provides RX products free of charge to low-income patients who do not have prescription coverage, do not qualify for government-funded programs, or do not have the means to pay for the medications themselves. In 2003, member companies of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) provided more than $3.4 billion in free medication for more than 6 million patients across the United States. PhRMA has for the past 10 years made available free of charge to patients and physicians alike a directory of company-sponsored Prescription Drug Patient Assistance Programs.* Unfortunately, patients and professionals alike had only limited awareness of the programs and of the directory.

Last year, the Coalition for Healthcare Communication made it a priority to increase awareness of pharmaceutical companies’ patient support programs among health professionals. The Coalition, in concert with its member organization, the Association of Medical Publications (AMP), and with PhRMA, conducted research to first determine the level of awareness about the PhRMA Patient Assistance Directory among physicians. It then developed an advertising campaign designed to enhance awareness, the centerpiece of which was a one page, two-color ad that ran in AMP member journals for 10 months free of charge. The single objective was to increase awareness of the PhRMA Directory among targeted physician audiences.

The program, which totaled over $1.2 million in medical journal advertising space, was an enormous success, with physician awareness of the PhRMA Directory increasing by 79%.

For an overview of the study, its results, and details of the Coalition’s ad campaign, click here.

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* PhRMA also publishes this directory on its www.helpingpatients.org web site.