Drug firms hand out placebo to ad critics

By DITA DE BONI

The Researched Medicines Industry has hit back at critics of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, issuing a research report yesterday on what it calls the "non-commercial" benefits of mass-media campaigns for drugs like Xenical, Viagra and asthma drug Flixotide.

The document outlines what it describes as an attempt to rectify a "recent spate of misinformed and negative comment in the public domain" about DTC advertising of prescription medicines.

It has been released ahead of a Government review of the laws governing DTC advertising. The review could tighten self-regulation on DTC advertising and effectively squeeze the life from a fledgling market worth about $10 million a year.

RMI general manager Terrence Aschoff said yesterday that research into the effects of DTC proved that mass media advertising of the medications had many benefits for the public.

While acknowledging a "commercial incentive" to undertake the research - the RMI represents the majority of major drug manufacturers operating in New Zealand - he said the findings showed benefits "unrelated to our members' commercial goals."

The report's central argument is that drug companies cover the cost of disseminating knowledge to the public on specific conditions. This knowledge prompts patients to comply with recommended treatment and promotes better communication between patients and doctors.

"DTC advertising provides an information interface between a pharmaceutical company and a patient, an interface controlled by regulatory and voluntary guidelines that information conveyed is properly balanced," it says.

"To add further regulatory constraints to DTC advertising of scientifically proven prescription medicines by ethically driven and highly regulated pharmaceutical companies would be akin to putting a finger in a dyke which is already crumbling beneath a flood of Internet health information advanced by often unregulated alternative health practitioners."

But Wayne McNee, general manager of the Government's drug-buying agency, Pharmac, said that while consumers should have access to choice, the question not addressed in the report was whether the advertisements were "information, misinformation or not enough information.

"It is important to raise clinical issues with the public but not necessary to promote particular brands of drugs.

"Of course, we are concerned from a fiscal perspective area, but we are a Government agency and are not making any money.

"We see advertisements as encouraging newer, more expensive treatments when some of the older drugs are just as effective and cheaper as well."

Mr McNee said the report's claims that DTC advertising improved public health were unproved and that United States consumer studies showed the accuracy rate of such advertising to be around 40 per cent.