Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20199

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

Jenkins R
Fight direct drug ads, GPs told
Australian Doctor 2006 Apr 53
http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/latest-news/fight-direct-drug-ads,-gps-told

Abstract:

DOCTORS must act now to prevent direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs infiltrating Australia, New Zealand experts have warned.
Writing in Australian Prescriber (April), they said direct-to-consumer marketing was designed to
“drive choice rather than inform it” and urged Australia to learn from New Zealand, where the practice began in the early 1990s.
Co-author Professor Les Toop, head of the department of public health and general practice at the University of Otago, NZ, said direct marketing and advertising had prompted patients to insist they have their medications switched leading to increased workload and tension for GPs.
“It’s the GPs who are the ones who are going to be at the sharp end of this,” he said.
Examples included patients flooding GP surgeries asking to switch…