Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9084

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: Journal Article

Brown H.
Sweetening the pill
BMJ 2007 Mar 31; 334:(7595):664-666
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7595/664

Abstract:

Advertising prescription drugs

European proposals to allow drug companies to provide health information are meeting strong opposition. Hannah Brown explains the arguments

When, in 2002, the European parliament voted resoundingly against allowing drug companies to provide information about their products directly to patients, public health lobby groups thought that the matter had been firmly dismissed. However, five years on, the resurgence of intense discussions about the “liberalisation of patient information,” as the European Commission refers to it, suggests that parliament’s resolve is set to be challenged again.

At issue is a set of proposals for relaxing the current laws that limit drug companies’ communication with patients to the fixed format safety summary contained inside drug packaging. For the commission, which drafts European Union legislation, this debate is a trade-off between nurturing the competitiveness of one of the EU’s biggest industries and respecting the concerns of public health organisations. What worries campaign groups most is that the commission seems to be ignoring them.

Hard lobbying by the drug industry has convinced the EU . . .

Competitiveness

Advertising by default

Notes:

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