Princeton, NJ, June 29, 2004 - Consumer Health Sciences (CHS), the leading provider of consumer healthcare information, today announced findings from its annual National Health and Wellness Survey that Americans who take action as a result of pharmaceutical advertising are, overall, in poorer mental and physical health and spend more on prescription medications than the population in general.

Of the survey respondents who recalled seeing or hearing a prescription pharmaceutical advertisement in the past six months, 12 percent (18.4 million people) were prompted to take action as a result. "Taking action" was defined as having already done, or as planning to do, any of the following: speak with a doctor, visit a website, call a toll-free number, consult a medical reference, or consult a family member or friend.

Just as interesting as the sheer number of people influenced by pharmaceutical advertising, however, is the fact that, as a group, DTC responders share several characteristics. Compared to the general population, they report that they:

• Suffer more concurrent diseases (29 percent more)
• Score lower on a general measure of overall mental and physical well being*
• Visit the doctor more frequently (21 percent more visits in the last six months)
• Spend more per month on prescription medications (29 percent more) (See Figure 1 below.)

"Critics of DTC advertising often argue that it somehow generates a need where none exists," observed Jane A Donohue, Ph.D. and CEO of Consumer Health Sciences. "If we only saw that DTC responders went to the doctor more often and spent more on prescription medications, the facts would support their theory as well as not; we simply wouldn't know what was the cause and what was the effect. However, our data strongly suggest that people who respond to DTC advertising are indeed in the greatest need of treatment. It appears that marketers are most often reaching and motivating their primary consumer targets with their advertising."

About the National Health and Wellness Survey
The National Health and Wellness Survey from which these facts were drawn, is a self-administered survey that was fielded in May/June 2003 and captured responses from 36,452 adults in the United States, 5,082 in France, 7,056 in Germany, and 5,071 in Great Britain. Results from the US are presented here.

About Consumer Health Services
Consumer Health Services collects and analyzes the attitudes, opinion, behaviors, quality of life measures, and demographics of consumers/patients internationally-with an emphasis on their healthcare habits and drug consumption and satisfaction. Founded in 1996, CHS is the leading provider of such information and helps pharmaceutical manufacturers understand and incorporate consumer/patient attitudes and behaviors into their strategic thinking and marketing planning. The Company's services include: customized research reports drawn from its warehouse of information, primary research, and research-based consulting such as performing advanced analytics and publishing posters, manuscripts, and educational material. CHS is owned by the Grey Healthcare Group and can be visited at www.CHSInternational.com.