Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16169

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Warning Issued Over Proposed Drug Company Promotion Of Medicines To Public, UK
Medical News Today 2009 Aug 4
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159765.php

Full text:

Drug companies may exploit new rules to promote their products to the public but present it as mere provision of information, according to an editorial published this week in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB).

Direct advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public is currently not allowed in the European Union (EU), but this position may be undermined by proposals from the European Commission (EC).

The proposals, if agreed, would allow drug companies new opportunities to present the public with information about prescription-only medicine through the internet or yet-to-be-defined “health-related publications.”

The DTB editorial is concerned about the proposals, which it suggests would permit direct advertising to the public in spite of the EU-wide ban.

It is proposed that each EU member state would ensure the companies providing the information were monitored and this could involve self-regulation by the companies.

“A key concern about these ideas is the intrinsic difficulty in distinguishing between advertising of prescription-only medicines to the public (which would still be banned) and proactive provision of non-promotional information about such products,” says the editorial.

The UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, is currently carrying out a public consultation on this issue – due to finish on August 14 – but supports the principle of allowing the pharmaceutical industry to give patients more information about medicines.

DTB, however, cites the negative experience in the US with direct to consumer advertising, where “infringements of rules on information provision have tended to be detected far too late and where there have been difficulties in imposing effective penalties.”

The editorial concludes: “We believe that acceptance of the EC’s proposals would permit public dissemination of promotional information about prescription-only medicines, masquerading as ‘information provision’.”

Given the obvious conflict of interests, DTB concludes, it would be naïve to think that the pharmaceutical industry would provide independent and reliable information to allow people to make informed choices about treatment.

“How to misinform patients.”
DTB 2009; doi 10.1136/dtb.2009.07.0027

Source
Drug And Therapeutics Bulletin