Marketing biologics

Don't for a moment forget that when it comes to the biologic (aka TNF-alpha) treatments for ankylosing spondylitis, we are being marketed to: a total of $195 million was spent to market five biologics in the U.S., France and Germany -- direct-to-patient ads in the U.S. ("ask your doctor") only, doctor- and industry-targeted ads throughout. Keep that in mind when reading news coverage about this stuff, because frequently the boundary between PR and news is quite tenuous.