I believe two factors are involved. One: the increase in direct-to-consumer advertising. Two: The passage of FDA Modernization Act of 1997, which created a "Fast Track" approval for important drugs to come onto the market much faster than usual. There was also a lot of drug development in the 1990's that by 2000 had reached the approval stage. I don't believe the sequencing of the human genome had much to do with this at all, however, 15-20 years down the road, it will have a lot to do with drug discovery.