ImpactRx Measure How Patient Brand Requests Drive Physician Treatment Decisions

Mount Laurel, NJ, July 08, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Unique Insight into the Effectiveness of Pharmaceutical DTC Advertising

ImpactRx, the pioneer in measuring the impact of promotion on physician prescribing behavior, offers pharmaceutical brand managers unique insight into the effectiveness of their direct-to-consumer promotional efforts. ImpactRx’s proprietary database, ImpactData™, annually captures more than 250,000 brand requests by patients. ImpactRx then records physicians’ treatment behavior in response to these requests from their patients.

ImpactRx’s longitudinal research model provides information on changes in patient request trends over time. Through the ImpactData, the effectiveness of a brand’s DTC campaign can be quickly measured by the change in share of patient requests generated before and after the campaign’s initiation.

Additionally, ImpactRx uniquely tracks how often physicians honor requests from their patients across all therapeutic areas. The ImpactData documents that patient requests underlie a greater proportion of physician usage of lifestyle drugs for the treatment of conditions such as erectile dysfunction and smoking cessation than usage of medications for chronic conditions like high cholesterol or diabetes. More than 20% of lifestyle treatments are associated with a patient request, while less than 5% of chronic medications have a corresponding request. Physician fulfillment rates per patient request, however, are similar for most therapeutic areas. Adding sample usage by physicians to their prescription writing increases the overall average fulfillment rate per request to about 85%.

Lesley Bailey, Senior Director, Product Development/Marketing at ImpactRx, stated “although there are differences in degree across markets, our data clearly shows that patient requests influence physician behavior. The longitudinal nature of our research model coupled with its physician-level linkage from request through to fulfillment, enables us to provide our clients unique insight into the effectiveness of their DTC campaigns”, Bailey continued. “To get a true read on the impact of their DTC efforts, our clients need to know not only if they are generating requests for their brands, but also if physicians are honoring those requests,” said Bailey.

“The effectiveness of Uloric’s recent DTC activity in the gout market is something we’re watching closely,” stated Bailey. “Patients are requesting Uloric at higher-than-average rates, so the ultimate success of the brand’s campaign will hinge on its ability to educate physicians to fulfill those requests,” Bailey finished.

ImpactRx’s panels span fourteen specialties including Primary Care, Oncology, Endocrinology, Cardiology, Rheumatology and Neurology. New panels supporting Pulmonology and Adult Psychiatry were launched earlier this year.

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