KUALA LUMPUR (May 29): The top five advertisers in US pharma spent a cumulative US$152 million on social media advertising (ad) in 2020.

The social ad spend analytics firm tracks spending on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Pfizer Inc was the top spender, investing a total of US$55 million, while GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was second with US$48 million. Allergan spent US$19 million, Merck US$16 million and Novartis US$14 million.

According to research data analysed and published by online trading portal Comprar Acciones on May 26, the pharmaceutical ad spend in the US rose by 41% overall in January and February 2021.

It said the uptick came as a result of robust growth in digital ad spend, which shot up by 242% year-on-year (y-o-y) within the same period.

Notably, the spending increased considerably despite the fact that the number of brands remained flat in that duration.

On the other hand, print ad spend in those two months fell by 23% y-o-y.

The portal said it is typical of companies in the industry to spend less at the beginning of the year.

But the increasing popularity of digital advertising contributed significantly to the decline.