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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10869

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

 

Publication type: Journal Article

Dyer C.
Drug industry challenges government's action on generic statins
BMJ 2007 Jul 14; 335:(7610):63
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7610/63


Abstract:

The trade body representing the drug industry is taking the UK government to court over its attempt to encourage doctors to switch patients to cheaper generic medicines.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has won permission to challenge the legality of the Department of Health’s drive to persuade doctors to prescribe generic statins in place of the more costly branded versions.

The government is determined to cut the £7bn (5bn; $3.5bn) a year the NHS pays for branded drugs. With nearly two million Britons taking statins to help lower their cholesterol, the Department of Health estimates that at least £84m a year could be saved if doctors prescribed generic statins.

But a spokesman for the association said that although it supports the government’s desire to get the best value for money, it has “serious concerns” about the methods adopted to persuade doctors to switch their patients to . . .


Notes:

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...to influence multinational corporations effectively, the efforts of governments will have to be complemented by others, notably the many voluntary organisations that have shown they can effectively represent society’s public-health interests…
A small group known as Healthy Skepticism; formerly the Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing) has consistently and insistently drawn the attention of producers to promotional malpractice, calling for (and often securing) correction. These organisations [Healthy Skepticism, Médecins Sans Frontières and Health Action International] are small, but they are capable; they bear malice towards no one, and they are inscrutably honest. If industry is indeed persuaded to face up to its social responsibilities in the coming years it may well be because of these associations and others like them.
- Dukes MN. Accountability of the pharmaceutical industry. Lancet. 2002 Nov 23; 360(9346)1682-4.