Pharmaceutical companies aggressively market their products to assure that everyone who needs to know about them receives information in a timely way. The marketing of drugs has many aspects that are unique in the world of product marketing:

1. Pharmaceutical marketing is directed to a large extent at audiences who are not the ultimate users of the products (i.e., physicians, pharmacists, HMO managers).
2. Even in an age when mass media predominate, marketing to certain audiences such as physicians remains very personal.
3. The very fact that pharmaceutical companies market their products is controversial, as there are critics who believe that essential health care products should not be marketed.
4. The federal government dedicates significant resources and has established far-reaching and complicated rules to assure that pharmaceutical promotion is accurate and balanced.

A number of significant issues linger, such as how companies can communicate scientific information that is not within FDA-approved labeling; how to regulate the Internet; and the role of the brief summary. These and other issues make the field of advertising and promotion of pharmaceuticals dynamic and ever-changing.