Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20142

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

Hourihan J
Prescription-drug ads endangering Canadian's health, conference told
Halifax Chronicle-Herald 2001 May 15

Full text:

Advertisements for prescription drugs are dangerous, say health activists gathered in Halifax for a conference on the influence of drug companies.

Conference organiser Sharon Batt on Monday called the effects of drug ads frightening.

“People are looking for information that they can trust to make informed health decisions”, said Ms. Batt, who holds the Nancy’s chair in women’s studies at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.

“Right now all the information is coming from the drug companies or from doctors who are influenced by the drug companies”, she said.

It is illegal under the Food and Drug Act to advertise prescription drugs in Canada, but Canadians are bombarded with drug ads in American magazines and on American cable channels.

The conference drew health care providers and activists from across Canada and the United States.

Barbara Mintzes, a researcher with the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia, said advertisements encourage people to make health decisions without having all the facts.

“If you’re talking about information to make decisions about your health, a billboard or a bus is not the place”, she said.

Ads often exaggerate the benefits of a drug while minimising the risks, Ms Mintzes said.

Ms Batt said people can’t assume their doctor is impartial as doctors receive information from drug companies, who pay for seminars, professional journals and other items for doctors.

“All of these have an impact on their prescribing habits, even if they aren’t aware of it”, she said.

“There are very few countries that allow this type of advertising”, said Barbara Brenner of the Putting People First Collaborative, a San Francisco breast cancer awareness group.

“But Canada happens to be just north of one of them”.

Ms Mintzes said drug advertisements, which are all for new drugs, lead people to believe new drugs are better than older ones. This isn’t necessarily the case, she said.

In most cases, she said, other drugs have proven just as effective as the ones advertised, and they cost less.

Alan Cassels, a consultant who worked on the Canada Drug Guide, said most information available on drugs is biased as it comes from drug companies.

“Everyone suffers when they don’t have access to impartial health information,” he said.

He said it’s very difficult for Canadians to get information on any drug that doesn’t come from drug companies.

Ms Mintzes said those at the conference want to see money spent on providing independent information on drugs. As well, she wants a crackdown on illegal drug advertising.

“Its a case of this country not enforcing the law”, she said.