Pharma Advertising Sequestration! DTC & Physician Ad Spending Cut 20% Across the Board!

According to MM&M: "Ad pages in medical/surgical journals fell precipitously in 2012, with companies buying 16,100 fewer pages than they did in 2011 (a 21.2% decline). Ad dollars, similarly, were down to $328 million, a $77.7 million drop (19.2%) from 2011 (see "Journal Ad Report 2012: In a Bind"). The data comes from Kantar Health. Here's the trend in Medical/Surgical journal ad revenue from 2007 through 2012:

It's interesting that medical journal ad revenue from pharma decreased about the same percentage amount as did DTC advertising as reported by CSD (see "Pharma DTC Ad Spending Took a Nosedive in 2012!"). It's as if "sequestration" has spread to pharmaceutical marketing.

Here's a pseudo infographic showing how the TOP 5 medical journals ranked by ad revenue did in 2012: