Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20169

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

Crofskey G
Kiwi drug ads illegal in US: Researcher
Newsroom 2000 Aug 17

Full text:

Advertisements for prescription drugs in New Zealand would not be permitted to be shown in the United States, according to a visiting Canadian health researcher.

New Zealand and the United States both permit advertising for drugs but Canada, Australia and the European Union do not.

Barbara Mintzes, who is studying direct-to-consumer advertising in Canada and now in New Zealand, said every single advertisement for prescription drugs has seen here would have been considered illegal in the US.

She said she was shocked to see the way the information on the drug’s benefits were presented.

“For instance Xenical, the claim here that I have seen is that twice as many people are able to lose weight on Xenical than on a diet, now that would not hold up in the US”, she said.

Xenical is a prescription drug used to manage significant obesity by targeting the absorption of fat in the body by preventing enzymes from breaking down fat molecules.

But Barbara Mintzes said she has real questions about where the advertisement’s claim came from.

She said information on risks in New Zealand advertisements is not presented verbally, but is flashed up on the screen, which would not be adequate for advertising in the US.