DTC medical device ads

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on direct-to-the-consumer medical device ads. Will they become as big as the DTC pharma ads? From the article:

To be sure, ad spending on medical devices isn't likely to become quite as significant as the money poured into pharmaceutical drugs, which more than doubled to $5.3 billion last year from 2000, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The device market is worth about $50 billion in sales right now, estimates Milton Hsu, a medical-devices industry analyst for Bear Stearns, compared with $320 billion for pharmaceuticals. TNS doesn't break out spending by medical-device makers. Most TV ads for medical devices air in the so-called spot market in limited regions of the country, rather than on national networks where airtime is more costly.

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