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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16807

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

Hamza W
Pharma cos pressurise govt to legalise DTCAs
The Nation 2009 Nov 22
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Business/22-Nov-2009/Pharma-cos-pressurise-govt-to-legalise-DTCAs


Full text:

The pharmaceutical companies are building up pressure on the government to legalise Direct To Consumer Advertisements (DTCAs) which is illegal according to the country’s Drug Act 1976, The Nation has learnt.
They justify this by saying that DTCAs increase drug spending and downplay the side effects of drugs.
The companies further say that in Pakistani scenario the legalisation of DTCs, already prevalence of self-medication and the ease with which prescription drugs are available over the counter, would incline many to use the advertisements as an objective source of information and resultantly become more effective in Pakistan.
It is pertinent to mention that the value of doctor-targeted promotional activities are reinforcing regardless of what most patients think, and doctors are undeniably influenced by sales reps.
Abrar Ahmed Agha. while talking to the Nation said that direct-to-consumer drug advertising is a bad idea because it puts product-promoting entity between the patient and the doctor and it essentially enlists the patient in its advertising campaign.
These ads corrupt the doctor-patient relationship, and attempt to “de-professionalize” medicine, and many of these ads are simply deceptive, he added.
He while citing his research in this regard said that in many countries the Direct to Consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical marketing has achieved a rapid growth in spending on drugs, and also a rise in drug prices as companies seek to recover their marketing costs.
Now, more and more patients are pushing their doctors to prescribe them medicines they may not need, moreover, there has also been an increasing trend in pharmaceutical advertising taking inspiration from consumer goods advertising, including hiring celebrity spokespersons, and sponsoring high-publicity events, he added. The persuasive ads would cause patients to seek prescriptions that may not be the best solution, and even in the absence of DTC in Pakistan the influence that sales reps hold with doctors is indispensable for pharmaceutical companies.
The pharmaceutical companies are allocating an even higher proportion of their budget to marketing, and in pursuit of expansion, global pharmaceutical companies are focusing on marketing rather than R&D as the way forward.
There has been a rise in the numbers of sales reps and in the personal benefits offered to the doctors, while there is other spending by the pharma companies such as monetary benefits to academics, and sponsorship of medical journals.
A pharma expert Dr. Qaiser Waheed while talking to The Nation said that DTC is the need of the time in order to give the masses access to the information about the best suitable drugs to them.
In a county like Pakistan where there are only 0.15 million doctors for the 170 million peoples it is very much needed for the masses to have access to the information about drugs beneficial to them, he added.
He said it is a right of the people of the country to be given the access of knowledge regarding medicines when in case of the short supply of drugs in the local market.
In addition, it is the responsibility of the reps to ensure that the pharmacists are kept aware of current incentives, and that the distributors are actually passing on those incentives.

 

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What these howls of outrage and hurt amount to is that the medical profession is distressed to find its high opinion of itself not shared by writers of [prescription] drug advertising. It would be a great step forward if doctors stopped bemoaning this attack on their professional maturity and began recognizing how thoroughly justified it is.
- Pierre R. Garai (advertising executive) 1963