U.S. and Canadian researchers said on Monday that the expensive advertising of the prescription drugs don’t increase the sales and don’t encourage it either. Companies spent $3 billion in 2005 on this kind of ads in the United States. Still, the drugs didn’t appear to result in more prescriptions.

Excepting the United States and New Zealand, all countries are forbidden to make direct advertising of prescription medications. Stephen Soumerai of Harvard Medical School said that "People tend to think that if direct-to-consumer advertising wasn't effective, pharma wouldn't be doing it."

French-speaking Quebec residents were used by the research team as to set up their experiment. The team at Harvard and the University of Alberta discovered that English-dominant Canadians see a great deal of U.S. advertising, but French-speaking Quebec are less likely to be influenced.

The drugs used in the experiment were Enbrel, sold by Wyeth and Amgen. The drug is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions. Zelnorm was the second drug used and is being sold by Novartis. In the end, Nasonex, an allergy treatment, which is made by ScheringPlough Corp., was used in the researchers’ study.

Soumerai said that "A person needs to see an ad, get motivated by that ad, contact their doctor for an appointment, show up at the appointment, communicate both the condition and the drug to the doctor, convince the doctor that this drug is preferable to other alternatives, then actually go out and fill the prescription."