# \[e-drug\] Medicines advertising on TV (cont) **URL:** \ **Category:** e-drug\ **Created:** [October 4, 2002, 6:08am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-medicines-advertising-on-tv-cont/15052 "2002-10-04T06:08:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e68b1a/32.png) [@lo1](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/lo1)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2002, 6:08am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-medicines-advertising-on-tv-cont/15052/1 "2002-10-04T06:08:06Z")
E-drug: Medicines advertising on TV (cont) --------------------------------------------- Dear Martin, Your medical education is up-to-date, but your political education is not. Such drugs are now called "comfort drugs". According to yesterday's NRC- Handelsblad the new minister of health in Holland (from the new right-wing Fortuyn party) has just decreed that advertising prescription drugs to the general public (as in NZ and the USA) will in the future be allowed, thereby turning Dutch policy 180 degree around, and anticipating similar EU regulations. Government supervision has been abolished, the inspection department concerned has been closed down, and checks are left to an industry council. It is not clear who will bear the expected increase of app.20% of the cost of drugs in health insurance systems. So everything you might have read in last week's report by Tony Sheldon in the BMJ is now out of date. I do not make any conclusions about what Revue Prescrire has called "the disastrous American experience". Let's wait and see. I hope that this is useful information. Best wishes, Dr.L.Offerhaus Koedijklaan 1a NL-1406 KW Bussum The Netherlands Phone +31-35-6923288 Fax +31-35-6923277 "Dr.L.Offerhaus" \ -- 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](http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html)