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This paper aims to study the effects of order of market entry on market share in prescription (Rx) and over‐the‐counter (OTC) pharmaceutical drugs market.

Data on sales, price, direct‐to‐physicians (DTP) advertising, and direct‐to‐consumers (DTC) advertising for three Rx drugs categories and two OTC drugs categories were obtained for the period, January 1998 to December 1999. A log‐log statistical model was estimated using OLS methodology.

There is a significant order of entry effect on market share in both Rx and OTC drugs categories. This effect is higher in magnitude in the OTC category than in the Rx category. The effects of price, and DTP and DTC advertising are also significant. The differential effects of DTP and DTC advertising in the Rx and OTC categories are intuitive.

This study is unique in studying the differential effects of order‐of‐entry, and DTP and DTC advertising on market share in Rx and OTC drugs product categories.

The over‐the‐counter (OTC) drug market is highly competitive, and consumer advertising is a prominent influence in OTC drug purchase and consumption. Given current marketplace conditions, it is important to summarize OTC drug advertising research. This paper aims to review the state of the public research literature on OTC drug advertising and provide a research agenda derived from the findings.

A literature review was conducted to identify the key themes in OTC drug advertising research and secondary data were collected about the regulation, nature, functions, and scope of OTC drug advertising.

Most pharmaceutical advertising studies have focused on prescription drugs, including the majority of direct‐to‐consumer advertising investigations. OTC drug advertising has received considerably less empirical attention. Since the mid‐1970s, only 24 OTC drug advertising studies have appeared sporadically in the literature. The cumulative findings are interesting and suggestive but dated, fragmented, and incomplete. Though research interest has waned, OTC drug markets and advertising spending have not. Advertising remains a prominent OTC drug purchase and consumption driver, likely spurred on by self‐medication and Rx‐to‐OTC drug switching. The state of the public research, the social and policy implications of self‐medication, and the growing OTC drug market signal that it is time to revisit OTC drug advertising content, processes, and effects.

The paper puts the subject of OTC drug advertising back on the radar of communication, advertising, and pharmaceutical marketing researchers and offers an agenda of research questions derived from the reviewed literature to guide and stimulate future studies.

The misuse of pharmaceutical opioid analgesics is identified as a global public health concern. Codeine represents an interesting quandary in terms of its regulated status, with individuals varying in their metabolism of codeine, estimation of safe dosages, risk of adverse health consequences and abuse potential. Efforts to quantify and address hidden non-compliant medical codeine use, overuse and intentional misuse is compromised by availability to the public in prescribed and over the counter forms. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A review of literature on codeine use, misuse and dependence, and associated innovative medical and pharmacy interventions is presented, and was conducted as part of a larger scoping review on codeine.

The review highlights the complexities associated with monitoring public health awareness of codeine's abuse potential, and customer/patients trends in non-compliant codeine use for therapeutic and recreational purposes. Aberrant codeine behaviours centre on visiting multiple doctors for prescriptions, repeated lost or stolen prescriptions, forging prescriptions and use of multiple pharmacies. Innovations to monitor misuse of codeine include national prescription databases and recent developments in real-time monitoring of dispensing activity.

Further development of real-time monitoring processes with process evaluation is advised.

This viewpoint is intended to demonstrate how efforts to quantify and address codeine use are compromised by its availability. It intends to encourage further policy and practitioner dialogue on how to monitor, support and intervene with consumers misusing codeine.

This study aims to increase understanding of the factors that affect retail pharmacy performance. This paper investigates how various product-, store-, customer- and competitor characteristics affect over-the-counter (OTC) drug sales and thus store performance.

This paper specifies and estimates a hierarchical model comprising scanner-based information, as well as individual-level data from a customer survey.

Results indicate that the drivers of retail pharmacy performance in OTC categories are different from those identified in traditional retailing research.

This is the first study that determines which factors impact the sales of OTC drugs in pharmacies.

This investigation set out to uncover whether CSR appeals – socially and/or environmentally oriented efforts promoted as part of a corporation’s advertising campaign – present a fruitful strategy for pharmaceutical manufacturers. This study investigates whether consumers in the two countries are similar with regards to (1) attitudes toward CSR engagement (2) perception of the social engagement of a company (3) perceived product/cause fit and (4) evaluation of CSR versus non-CSR appeals in OTC pharma ads. A field study was conducted (483 subjects; non-student sample) to explore how a standardized promotional message with or without a CSR appeal is perceived in a cross-cultural setting. Results indicate that consumers’ response (with regard to attitudes toward CSR, perceived social engagement by a company, perceived product-cause fit, as well as ad evaluation) all varied by country. Consumer responses were only tested with regard to a fictitious product as well as for one product category. Overall results suggest that CSR messages resonated more with some consumers than with others and, thus, may need to be tailored by market. Apart from a very small number of investigations, neither consumer evaluations of over-the-counter (OTC) drug ads in general, nor responses to CSR ad appeals in particular, have been explored. Thus, this investigation’s primary goal is to explore responses toward CSR messages in non-prescription drug ads in the United States and Brazil.

Pharmaceutical companies have received a tremendous amount of attention in the media regarding increases in drug prices at rates much in excess of the rate of inflation. Synthesizes the numerous issues affecting drug pricing and the role that the auditor should play in determining a “fair” price. Evaluates the role of the auditor with regard to the call from investors for additional information in the annual report and more in‐depth analysis of management′s ethical and operational practices. The pharmaceuticals industry represents a unique area for consideration, given ethical and regulatory pressures and the nature of the drug development and distribution process. With the complexities of this process, considers the auditor′s responsibility to understand unfair pricing practices along with the ability to detect such practices.

This study aims to examine the antecedent factors (internal and external) that influence intentions to buy over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in Jordan.

A conceptual framework was developed based on consumer buying behavior theoretical background and a review of the relevant literature. A quantitative approach and a convenience sampling method were used to obtain data from self-administered questionnaires, which were completed by 351 academic staff from selected Jordanian universities.

The results indicate that all antecedent factors (internal, external and combined) have significant positive influences on the intentions to buy OTC medicines. Internal factors are more influential than external factors; however, the combination of internal and external factors resulted in the greatest influence on buying OTC medicines compared to each category separately.

This paper has integrated and examined empirically the antecedent factors that influence intentions to buy OTC medicines (internal, external and combined) in Jordan’s business environment context as a developing country for the first time.

The health movement that has been sweeping this country has given rise to increased consumer awareness of both prescription and nonprescription medications. One of several responses to this heightened interest has been a plethora of drug information publications aimed at the general public audience. Some of these publications became so popular they attained positions on the best‐seller list. At the same time books, such as the PDR, that had generally been available only to health professionals began to find their way into popular bookstores.

Advertisements are the first point of contact a marketer has with a prospective consumer. It is at this stage that a marketer gets an opportunity to leave an impression in the minds of a reader and to differentiate a reader from a prospective customer. Marketers achieve this objective with the help of two tools of advertising i.e. attractiveness cues and information cues. Given the limitation of time, space and financial resources marketers have been forced into a tradeoff between information cues and attractiveness cues. This tradeoff has given rise to skepticism in the minds of customers and policy makers concerning the balance between the two cues and resulting ethical issues. This paper aims to carry out a content analysis of advertisements in magazines in order to study this tradeoff between information and attractiveness cues in advertisements.

To pursue the research objective, it was decided to collect data through content analysis of advertisements. To judge the level of informative and attractiveness cues in advertisements, classification by Resnik and Stern and Pollay along with imagery questions were used. The classification determines the level of advertising information based on 14 criteria or cues. The classification is an established baseline and has also been tested for reliability in other cultures. To collect data it was decided to use magazine advertisements as these are a preferred means for advertising OTC drugs. In order to select the sample various Indian and US magazines were reviewed. Indian magazines focusing entirely on health and women could not be found; therefore two popular women's magazines were chosen which discussed health topics. For interpreting the content of the advertisements two coders, who were trained in marketing research, were chosen. Data collection resulted in 170 unique advertisements across India and USA.

The results of the study highlighted that, although both US and Indian OTC advertisements were trading off in favor of attractiveness cues, Indian advertisements were more imbalanced. Indian advertisements on an average have 4.83 attractiveness cues out of 6.60 cues per advertisements while US advertisements have 4.55 attractiveness cues out of 7.54 cues per advertisement. Indian advertisements not only have on an average fewer information cues, but also fared badly in terms of the type of cues. The US marketers were found to be more socially responsible in terms of advertisements ethics as compared to Indian marketers in the context of the OTC drugs industry.

The study was limited to OTC drugs; a more detailed study should be carried out to compare advertising content by specific product categories. Difference in scope of magazines used in this study may have influenced the adequacy of sample, as profile of target customers in the two magazines was a little different.

The results indicated that the Indian OTC advertisers needed to re‐evaluate the industry standards and become more ethical and socially responsible to give the industry a global outlook and acceptance.

The paper highlights the need for companies to adopt a proactive and socially responsible attitude and improve information content of Indian OTC advertisements as per international industry standards.

The paper will be of value to corporate and social policy makers and also to marketers.