Could DTC be going the way of detailing?

DTC spending declined 7.1% in the third quarter—the firstdecline in recent memory—to $1.125 billion as companies pruned print, radio andnetwork TV advertising, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

While network TV ad spend dipped for the quarter,year-on-year—from $332 million to $304 million—spending on cable TV rose, from$275 million to $288 million, as did spending on syndicated, spot and Spanishlanguage TV. National magazine ad spend slid from $330 million to $300 million,while national Sunday supplement spend dropped from $36 million to $18 millionand local newspaper spend plummeted from $2 million to $725,817. Network radiospend skidded from $6.3 million to $3.5 million, and spot radio spend went from$6.6 million to just over $1 million.

Spend on AstraZeneca’s Crestor dropped from $43 million forQ3 2006 to $4 million for Q3 2007, while Nexium spend went from $43 million to$17 million. Pfizer’s support for Lipitor slipped from $31 million to $23million, and Relpax went from $18 million to nothing. The sleep category sawincremental increases in spend, with exception to Takeda’s Rozerem, whichratcheted down from $58 million to $32 million. Novartis dropped support forLamisil and Zelnorm, which together accounted for $60 million in Q3 spend in2006. Similarly, GlaxoSmith-

Kline dropped support for Imitrex and Coreg, for which itlaid out $44 million combined in Q3 2006. Lilly trimmed Cymbalta’s sails from$39 million for Q3 2006 to $26 million in 2007.

Those declines were offset by launch campaigns andheightened spend on drugs like Cialis, Abilify, Nasonex and Plavix.