E-drug: EU Cmte rejects advertising prescription medicines to the public
---------------------------------------------
Dear friends
HAI Europe has sent out the following press release announcing the EU
Environment Committee's rejection of a Commission proposal to relax
the ban on the advertising of prescription medicines to the public.
For more information, contact HAI Europe at the address given in the
release.
------------------------------------------------------------------
HAI Europe
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3 October 2002
EU Committee rejects advertising prescription medicines to the public
HAI Europe calls on Parliament to support Committee's decision
The European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and
Consumer Policy voted yesterday to defeat a Commission proposal aimed
at relaxing the ban on advertising prescription drugs to the public.
The vote came as part of the Committee's consideration of the
pharmaceutical review legislation.
A majority of committee members rejected the Commission's proposal to
allow drug companies to provide information to the public about
treatments for HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and asthma. While industry
representatives and DG Enterprise have argued that the proposal was
about providing information, public health groups, including HAI
Europe, have emphasised that the proposal would actually allow
promotion disguised as information to reach consumers.
'The Committee clearly recognised that the European public needs
quality information about medicines and other treatments, but saw
that this proposal wasn't the way to provide it,' said Margaret
Ewen, Co-director of HAI Europe and its DTCA campaign leader. 'They
understood that this proposal is actually about allowing companies to
advertise their products to a whole new audience.'
'The Committee's stance will not only benefit EU consumers, but also
people in many other countries, notably in the developing world,'
said Charles Medawar, Director of the UK-based consumer group, Social
Audit. 'This was an important test case and the Committee has taken
an important and good decision, clearly defining the limits of
market-driven medicine and making a strong commitment to Health for
All.'
Instead of approving the Commission's proposal, the Committee called
on the Commission to outline a comprehensive consumer/patient
information strategy ensuring good quality, objective, reliable and
non-promotional information about medicines and other treatments.
This is to be done in consultation with consumer and patient
organisations. The full Parliament will vote on the provisions of the
comprehensive pharmaceutical review legislation later this month.
HAI Europe has been actively campaigning against the Commission's
proposal for the past year. Two of its members, Barbara Mintzes and
Charles Medawar, have published background briefing papers on the
issue that can be downloaded from its website at:
<http://www.haiweb.org/campaign/DTCA/index.html>http://www.haiweb.org/campaign/DTCA/index.html\.
For more information, contact:
Lisa Hayes
HAI Europe
Tel: (+31-20) 683 3684
Fax: (+31-20) 685 5002
EMAIL: info@haiweb.org
MOBILE: (+31-6) 24 22 5847
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html