[consumer451]

I am pretty uninformed in this space, but the D in pharma R&D includes the cost of direct to consumer advertising, correct?

I see a lot of expensive looking ads on TV. Those ads were made legal in my lifetime. Maybe it’s time to ban prescription ads again?

[aaavl2821]

The "d" is for development. Basically "research" is finding a potential drug (making a chemical that has an effect on disease in animal or in vitro models and has good pharmacological properties) and "development" is testing it in tox studies, scaling up manufacturing, testing it for safety and effectiveness in humans. There is a ton of risk and cost in the "development" stage

DTC ads would be in the marketing budget under SG&A

[consumer451]

Too late to edit my original comment, but here is the history of direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription drugs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-to-consumer_advertising...