E-drug: Re: BMJ starts drug advertising on website (contd)
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Dear colleagues,
As I have already written to HAI, there is a different argument
against the BMJ advertising prescription drugs on the Internet site:
Most Western European countries have their own legislation
controlling advertising for prescription drugs, and in most countries
industry is only allowed to advertise on the basis of local
registration data, i.e. British journals are not allowed to advertise
in their international editions British drugs with British texts.
Curiously enough these rules are faithfully kept by the international
(paper) editions of BMJ, Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine,
though some local importers insert local advertisements in the local
language with locally approved texts, indications etc.
So it reduces the problem to the general problem of advertising
prescription drugs on the Internet outside the country of
registration. Most countries are opposed to the idea. So the issue
should in the first instance be dealt with by Brussels. It should be
stopped as long as the legal issue remains unsolved.
Regards
Dr.L.Offerhaus
Koedijklaan 1a, NL-1406 KW Bussum, The Netherlands
Phone: 0031-35-6923288 Fax: 0031-35-6923290
E-mail: LO@EURONET.NL; CompuServe 71530,15
EJCP Only: POB 75552, NL-1070AN Amsterdam
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