E-drug: UK consumers reject direct advertising by drug industry
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[Copied as fair use. HH]
BMJ 2002;324:1416 (15 June 2002)
UK consumers reject direct advertising to patients by drug industry
Mark Hunter Leeds
The pharmaceutical industry has accused the UK Consumers' Asso-
ciation of "muddying the waters" over the European Commission's
plans to relax controls on the information it can provide directly to
patients.
The European parliament is considering a pilot project in which drug
companies will be able to set up interactive websites and telephone
helplines to provide information on treatments for AIDS and HIV
infection, asthma, and diabetes.
But the Consumers' Association opposes the plan and last week
published a survey showing that the general public was deeply
suspicious of industry advertising of prescription-only medicines
directly to patients.
Of the 1818 adults questioned in the survey, only one in four felt
that drug companies could be trusted to provide unbiased and
comprehensive information about treatments. Over 80% felt that if
direct to patient advertising was allowed, companies would spend
most money advertising the most profitable drugs. And over half of
respondents believed that drug companies would try to convince
people they had non-existent illnesses.
The association claims that evidence from the United States and
New Zealand has shown that pharmaceutical advertising is likely to
contain inadequate information about possible side effects and little
educational content and could lead to a dramatic increase in drug
costs.
"People need balanced and comparative information to make
informed choices about drugs," said a spokesperson for the
Consumers' Association. "But they simply do not trust drug
companies to tell the whole truth." She added: "This survey sends
a clear message to the UK government and the European
parliament3/4 the moves to relax the laws governing advertising of
prescription drugs must be stopped immediately."
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry claimed that
the survey bore little relevance to the moves proposed under the
European Commission's pilot project. "This survey shows that the
public is against direct to patient advertising, and we would agree
with that 100%," said a spokesman.
"But that's not what the EC is proposing. They are talking about
improving the way in which patients can obtain information on the
medicines they use, and why would anybody be against that?"
He said that when announcing the project last July, the EC
commissioner, Erkii Liikanen, had taken great pains to emphasise
that "this is not direct to consumer advertising." The project would
help to end the anomaly whereby European patients had to rely on
US websites to obtain information on their medicines, he said.
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