Free E-Samples Of Prescription Drugs: At What Cost?

Search the Internet to learn about your asthma, high cholesterol or other common disorder, and odds are you’ll be directed to a pharmaceutical company-sponsored Web homepage. There you’ll often find an offer for a free sample or a one-time discount on a top-selling prescription medication.

Is it a good deal? Not according to a study of such direct-to-consumer offers on the Internet by a research team led by Dr. William G. Weppner of the University of Washington (UW) Department of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. The results were published in this week’s issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The results showed that the value of such introductory offers is low compared with the retail cost the patient will pay to continue taking the brand-name medication, and in most cases a less-expensive generic equivalent is not available.

The researchers also found that information on efficacy, safety and side effects was de-emphasized, in contrast to the prominent positioning of the free offer. The benefits of the medication were described in a general way, and some included patient testimonials. Quantitative information on the medication’s indications for use, effectiveness and risks was rarely presented. The researchers suggested that further studies would help determine if free offers distract or divert patients from reading risk information.

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