Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13790

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

Editorial .
Direct-to-consumer advertising under a different name
The Lancet 2008 Jun 14; 371:(9629):1972
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673608608430/fulltext

Abstract:

From February to April this year, the European Commission (EC) held a public consultation on proposed legal changes that would allow pharmaceutical companies to provide information to patients about prescription-only drugs via all available media. The Commission’s proposal states that the ban on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) in Europe would remain. However, many critics rightly feel that allowing the industry to provide information to patients is effectively DTCA under a different name…

…Patients have a fundamental right to access good quality, objective information on medicines. The EC’s final proposal, due out later this year, must empower patients and not the drug industry.