Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1435

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

Nilson asks Ottawa to reject pharmaceutical ads
CBC Saskatchewan 2003 Oct 1

Full text:

SASKATOON – Health minister John Nilson urged a federal committee on health care to stay within the principles of Canada’s Health Care Act Wednesday morning as the issue of drug advertising was thrown into the fray.

Nilson says his department now spends $133 million a year on prescription drugs for people in Saskatchewan. He wants the federal committee to stop pharmaceutical companies from doing direct drug advertising in magazines and on television.
“Advertising of prescription drugs can result in inappropriate and unnecessary prescription drug use,” Nilson told a press conference. “It drives up the cost of health care and undermines the efforts of physicians, pharmacists and others to promote optimal drug therapy.”

Nilson says newer drugs are usually those that get advertised and they also tend to be the most expensive, even though there are many less expensive alternatives that work just as well.

The health minister also took the opportunity to criticize Health Canada’s process for approving generic alternatives, saying it takes too long and needlessly costs the province more in drug costs.