E-drug: Ensuring ethical drug promotion--whose responsibility? (cont'd)
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Hello,
I am not writing from France but would be happy to comment on this campaign,
as I believe that precisely the same print advertisement has been running in
Canada. I've last seen the ad in the July/August 2003 issue of a magazine
intended for physicians' waiting rooms, called 'Healthy Woman', which is
co-sponsored by a media group (Roger's Media) and the Society of
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.
The first ads appeared here more than a year ago. Initially, they had
Pfizer's logo on them as well as the Canadian Lipid Nurses Network.
Currently, although the image and the text of the ad are the same as in
those that had Pfizer's name on them, only the Canadian Lipid Nurses Network
and the Canadian Diabetes Association appear as sponsors. The ad has run
repeatedly in a national newspaper, the Globe & Mail, and in a major
national magazine, Chatelaine, among other media. Chatelaine's French
version had precisely the same headline as the one quoted below. In the
English version, the headline is: "Which would you rather have, a
cholesterol test or a final exam?" Some ads feature a toe tag saying that
the corpse is a woman aged 52, others a man aged 42. In both cases, the tag
on the toe says that they are not overweight -- an odd thing to say on a toe
tag -- and that they died of a heart attack.
Not only is the message strongly misleading from a public health
perspective, it raises a fundamental ethical question about using fear of
death to sell a product, in this case Pfizer's leading cholesterol-lowering
drug, atorvastatin (Lipitor).
It is fantastic to see the letter to the Lancet from the WHO EDM team. Thus
far, Canadian health authorities have done nothing to stop this campaign in
spite of the misleading implications about cardiovascular risks. We have
the additional problem here that public drug payment is mainly a provincial
responsibility, whereas upholding the Food & Drugs Act, which prohibits
deceptive advertising, is a federal responsibility. Thus the arm of
government that fails to regulate adequately unfortunately also fails to
directly experience most of the financial risks of non-regulation.
Barbara Mintzes
Centre for Health Services & Policy Research
University of British Columbia
bmintzes@chspr.ubc.ca
Access Essential Drugs Monitor #32 at http://www.who.int/medicines/mon/mon32.shtml
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