The lobbying group for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent an estimated $59 million on search advertising over a recent seven-year period to influence how Americans view the highly charged issue of prescription drug costs, according to a new analysis that used data to model the spending.
Of that, the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America spent roughly $32 million on ads linked to insurance and health plan searches, while $28 million was spent directing people to its web pages and domains criticizing pharmacy benefit managers, which drugmakers argue are the true culprits behind the rising prices for many medicines.
Spending also surged around well-publicized legislative and regulatory actions, such as when Medicare began drug price negotiations in 2023. In all, PhRMA used more than 283,500 distinct keywords to generate 17.1 million paid visits from 2019 through 2025, according to an analysis published in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
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