E-drug: Thank you for supporting a ban on DTCA in NZ
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[Thanks for this feedback, Peter. Another clear sign that we can
make a difference! HH]
Healthy Skepticism thanks all who joined our campaign to support
the call from doctors in New Zealand for a ban on Direct To
Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs to the public.
It appears that our campaign has already been successful at
indicating the level of international concern about drug promotion to
the public. We have received an indication from the NZ Ministry of
Health that they have got the message. Consequently, no more
letters are required now.
If you were too late to join this campaign please feel welcome to
join our other campaigns related to misleading drug promotion in the
future. Visit www.healthyskepticism.org and click on "Your
Options".
For this NZ DTCA campaign we received support from:
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Canada
Colombia
France
Lithuania
NZ
Papua New Guinea
South Africa
Spain
Switzerland
Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies
UK
USA
The strongest support was from Australia, Canada, Spain and the
UK.
About 2/3 of supporters just sent the open letter we wrote. About
1/3 modified our letter or wrote their own.
Comments received included:
DTCA is prohibited in Lithuania but we have very hard pressure
from pharmaceutical companies and radio, TV and other mass
media.
We have been following this since the report's release and have
circulated copies of the report to our own policy makers in Canada
in the hope that it will enhance our efforts to not have DTCA
approved here.
I support your campaign having seen what herpes "awareness"
advertising is doing to patients I see at Melbourne Sexual Health
Centre.
We have some alarming examples in the UK, where terbinafine has
been covertly promoted as a treatment for "unsightly toenails"
affected by minor fungal infections in the national press. One of our
coronary disease patients was prescribed this drug directly as a
result of a newspaper advertisement for this trivial condition (in
conjunction with a statin for his elevated cholesterol) and suffered
disturbed liver function requiring him to stop his statin and exposing
him to unnecessary risk.
We have received the following initial response from Annette King,
Minister of Health for New Zealand: