Direct advertising of drugs to consumers has caused retail spending on prescriptions to soar, the National Institute for Health Care Management, an independent, non-profit making research and educational foundation based in Washington, has found.

Last year pharmaceutical companies spent $1.8bn (£1.3bn) on “direct to consumer” advertising, mostly on television. Advertising expenditure in 1999 rose by 38.5% from the $1.3bn spent in 1998, and …