E-drug: Advertising in national formularies (cont)
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Dear Vanda & Jurgis
Greetings from Consumers International, Regional Office for Asia and the
Pacific, Penang, Malaysia, where I am currently sharing Australian rational
drug use initiatives under WHO auspices.
You have raised a subject I have strong feelings about. To me, there is a
fundamental conflict of interest between pharmaceutical advertising and
independent information contained in national formularies, guidelines, etc.
Pharmaceutical advertising delivers inherently biased information; the
latest and most expensive drugs receive the most exposure, generic
drugs are rarely promoted and non-drug solutions are promoted not at
all. Advertising emphasises the positive aspects of a product; rarely
does it provide a balanced assessment of adverse effects or other
treatment options.
National formularies, guidelines, etc. aim to provide health professionals
and consumers with useful, objective, evidence-based comparative
information about medicines and therapies. Their goal is to improve
health outcomes by changing how prescribers think and act and how
consumers manage their medication and healthcare. Part of this role
is to critique the claims of industry and teach critical appraisal of
pharmaceutical marketing
techniques. Credibility is a core element of their ability to attain this
goal; an essential part of achieving this credibility is financial and
editorial independence from the pharmaceutical industry. It is for this
reason that a condition of membership of the International Society of Drug
Bulletins is complete independence from the pharmaceutical industry. This
means no pharmaceutical advertising despite the fact that advertising income
would lower the price of their products, extend their educational reach and
might even allow their authors some remuneration.
'Australian Prescriber' (our national drug bulletin), 'Therapeutic
Guidelines' and the Australian National Formulary (our Pharmaceutical
Benefits Schedule booklet) have NO pharmaceutical advertising. May it ever
remain so!
Cheers
Dr. Ken Harvey, WHO Fellow & Peripatetic Senior Lecturer,
School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, 3083, Australia,
Telephone +61 3 9479 1750, Facsimile +61 3 9479 1783, Mobile 0419 181910,
Internet: http://www-sph.health.latrobe.edu.au/kharvey/
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