Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12628

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: news

Jack A.
Measures to limit drug marketing questioned
The Financial Times 2008 Jan 18
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/651a9192-c536-11dc-811a-0000779fd2ac.html

Full text:

Doctors and pharmaceutical companies on Thursday questioned calls by MPs for fresh measures to limit drug marketing and boost the prescription of generic medicines in the UK.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said there were good reasons for periodically prescribing branded drugs even after patents had expired.
It also queried the power of drug company marketing to GPs.

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), the industry trade body, rejected criticism of its members’ marketing activities, and said policymakers should focus more on raising the NHS’
uptake of innovative new medicines.

The comments came in response to a report released on Thursday by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, which called for renewed efforts to boost the prescription of generics.

Its findings were inspired by a report from the National Audit Office last year, which estimated that the NHS could save £200m ($394m) a year through greater switching to low-cost generic drugs without affecting clinical outcomes.

The NAO found wide variations in prescribing practices between primary care trusts across the UK for statins, or cholesterol-lowering drugs, which were not justified by differences in clinical need. A fifth of GPs it surveyed also believed pharmaceutical companies had more influence than prescribing advisers.

In response, the public accounts committee called on primary care trusts to determine a value above which any gifts provided by pharmaceutical companies to doctors should be declared, and to publish annual registers logging these gifts.

But Dr Bill Beeby, chairman of the BMA’s GP clinical and prescribing sub-committee, said: “The majority of pharmaceutical company gifts are pens and pads. We are not going to fill out forms for those.”

He also said that the NAO’s assessment of wastage in statins did not take into account that the relative prices of the different drugs had changed over time, and there would be costs, practical issues and delays in switching patients to the cheaper off-patent versions. He said some generic drugs were also more expensive than patented ones.

Richard Barker, director-general of the ABPI, said: “The facts simply do not back the assertion that doctors are unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry’s marketing activities. Would any other industry be expected to spend an average of £500m on developing a new product and then be criticised for telling people about it?”

The British Generic Manufacturers Association welcomed the public accounts committee’s report, calling on doctors to prescribe ”rationally and cost effectively”.