Pharmaceuticals stay healthy online

The Internet is fast becoming the digital equivalent of the Physician's Desk Reference. An average of 55.3 million people per month, or 31% of US Internet users, visited a Web site in the health information category in the first quarter of 2007, according to comScore data.

That traffic represents a healthy 12% increase over the same period in 2006. At the same time, the US Internet population grew only 4%.

Most of the traffic went to category leader WebMD (17.1 million average monthly visitors), followed by the National Institutes of Health site (9.8 million) and MSN Health (nearly 8.1 million). However, not all visitors found what they were looking for, and some went on to other health information sites. MSN Health leaked the fewest visitors to other sites — only 16.8% of the audience went elsewhere, compared with 28.5% of visitors to WebMD.

Many visits were sparked by seeing direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads in other media, according to Rodale's "Consumer Reaction to DTC Pharmaceutical Advertising" report. After seeing a DTC ad, 27% of respondents talked to their doctor about the drug or condition mentioned, and 89% went online to look for more information on the specific condition or illness. Over six in 10 searched for the prescription medicine itself.

The US drug market continues to grow, too. North America accounts for 45% of global pharmaceutical sales, according to IMS Health. In 2006, pharmaceutical sales rose 8.3%, to $290.1 billion — up from 5.4% growth the year before — thanks to the introduction of the Medicare Part D benefit and a solid 7.6% growth rate in Canada.

SOURCE: EMARKETER