Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20113

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: Magazine

MacKinven M
Drug makers risking penalties over promos
New Zealand Doctor 2000 May 1015

Full text:

An unacceptable number of medicine ads are unbalanced and offending companies are at risk of prosecution, Medsafe team leader compliance Peter Pratt says.

This is one outcome of the team’s assessment of medicine ads, carried out between last November and February.

“We have presented the results to the industry and said the level of non compliance is still unacceptable. The RMI and Non Prescription Medicines Association said they will work with their members, and us, to improve the situation”, Mr Pratt says.

The ministry will prosecute repeat offenders under the Medicines Act after giving a warning letter. The maximum fine is about $500, but likely to increase in therapeutic products legislation still to come before Parliament some time soon.

But, first, the ministry will refer advertisers to the RMI and Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which have disciplinary procedures in place, as well as request a retraction for a bad ad.

The Medsafe team combed ads in all public media and found a surprisingly high 69.3 percent for prescription medicines did comply with the Medicines Act (which makes such ads legal). This is 30 percent higher than compliance a year ago.

But, in the OTC market, only 14 percent of ads complied with requirements.

The main fault with ads for both types of product is failure to disclose risk information, eg, contraindications and side effects, Mr Pratt says.

There’s no legal requirement to say “see a doctor” but there is to say the medicine is “prescription only”.

“But advertisers respecting the role of doctor is one of our important recommendations. This should be reflected in ads, as the ASA requires it too”, he says.

This was the first time ads for OTC medicine had been evaluated, and few advertisers of these products had consulted the Therapeutic Advertising Advisory Service (TAAS).

Mr Pratt is hopeful in time they will comply better with industry and legal requirements.

Advertisements will be assessed again in a year to see how much improvement there has been.

The Association of New Zealand Advertisers (ANZA), which includes pharmaceutical companies, developed TAAS a year ago, after a hui for the industry and Pharmac was hosted by former associate minister of health Tuariki Delamere.

ANZA executive director Jeremy Irwin is preparing a report for the minister of health about the second six months of TAAS’ work. In its first eight months it answered 90 inquiries.