E-drug: Re: Estonian Violations of advertising regulations
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A brief note on the Estonian State Agency for Medicines website posting
advertising violations:
This is an important move, as it will allow both health professionals and
the public to know when an advertisement or a promotional activity has been
found to violate national regulations, and helps to make companies more
publicly accountable.
In Canada, health professionals and the public do not have access to enough
detailed information on promotional violations to be able to recognize the
product, advertising or activity involved. Similarly, no information is
made available on the basis for the decision that an advertisement or
promotional activity was found to violate regulations. This is an
unacceptable situation.
Regulation of drug promotion has been delegated to two organizations tied
to the pharmaceutical industry: a committee of the Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers' Association of Canada (PMAC) and a 'semi-autonomous' board,
the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board, which has closer ties to
industry than government (majority of its board members are either from the
pharmaceutical or advertising industries; Health Canada has a non-voting
member).
In Estonia, which openly reports details of violations, the government is
directly responsible for regulation of drug promotion. This is also true in
the US and France.
I'm curious to know what the situation is like in other countries. I think
this would also be of interest to e-drug subscribers, so I suggest you post
the information on e-drug:
1. In your country, is enforcement of promotional regulations carried out
directly by the government, or delegated to the pharmaceutical industry?
2. How much information is publicly available on advertisements and other
promotional activities that have been found to violate national
regulations?
- Is enough detailed information on the ad, product, company, location of
activity made public so that health professionals or the public can know
when something they saw or participated in was found to violate
regulations?
- Is the reason behind the regulatory decision also made public? [for
example, promotion of unapproved indications, inadequate risk information
provided, incentives or bribes offered, etc]
Thanks in advance!
With best regards,
Barbara Mintzes
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Barbara Mintzes
Dept of Health Care & Epidemiology
University of British Columbia
Vancouver BC Canada
bmintzes@compuserve.com
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