Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) in pharmaceutical market: literature review - The pharmaceutical industry is a leader in research and development investment. New treatments need to be communicated to the market, and consumers are increasingly interested in learning about new drugs. Direct to consumer advertising of prescription medicines (DTCA) is a controversial practice where many of the arguments for and against are not supported by strong evidence. It is increasingly used by the pharmaceutical industry, so its benefits and harms have to be summarised in a comprehensive manner. This paper aims to contribute to a research agenda that is forming in this area reporting on a systematic review that was conducted and applies accepted theoretical models to the DTCA context. Keywords: direct-to-consumer advertising, marketing, drugs, effectiveness.