The news: Pharma TV advertising spending totaled $5.4 billion through November—surpassing 2024’s full year spending of $5.1 billion—according to iSpot.tv data.

• Pharma TV advertisers spent $573 million in November, up 29% year over year.
• In October, pharma advertisers reached a monthly high for 2025 with $601 million in national TV media, a 28% increase YoY.
• Pharma marketers are continuing to spend on linear TV for broad reach and awareness. During NFL Football games, for example, they spent $42 million more YoY in October 2025, per iSpot.
• Drug brands in the mental health category that are newer to TV advertising helped bolster spending in November, including commercials for Bristol Myers Squibb’s schizophrenia drug Cobenfy and Axsome Therapeutics depression medication Auvelity.

Why it matters: Pharma TV advertising has been under fire from the Trump administration this year, but we haven’t seen an impact in total spending in the space, yet.

• In September, there was a Congressional attempt to eliminate tax write-offs for pharma TV ad expenses and a directive from President Trump instructing health agency regulators to crack down on direct-to-consumer (D2C) advertising.
• That same month, the FDA sent warning letters to pharma companies about 40 drug commercials, demanding that they be changed or taken off the air.
• The FDA has also threatened to revoke a 1997 rule that allows drugmakers to only list a product’s most serious risks in TV ads. Requiring all side effects to be listed would result in longer, more expensive commercials (which could be a major disincentive for spending).

However, none of these proposed regulatory actions have been implemented, and pharma marketers largely maintained, and even grew, linear TV spending in 2025.

Implications for pharma marketers: Pharma advertisers are increasingly reallocating budgets to more targeted digital channels, especially connected TV (CTV) and social media. We forecast healthcare and pharma digital media ad spending will increase 13.3% YoY to reach $24.77 billion this year.

That said, linear TV will remain an important pharma advertising channel when they need to reach large, diverse audiences. This is especially true for major live sports, as we saw with NFL spending increases, and in aiding new drug launches.

Still, as regulatory scrutiny intensifies, TV advertisers face growing uncertainty that could raise production costs and disrupt launch timelines. That’s likely to accelerate the shift toward digital channels that offer more flexibility and lower regulatory risk.