HAI Europe has long fought against direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription-only medicines. HAI Europe believes that purely promotional messages should play no part in people's decision about treatment options. Patients must be confident that the information they are given is geared towards helping them choose the best treatment, not to maximise sales.

The pharmaceutical industry spends millions of dollars on marketing medicines. This is because of a crisis in innovation and a lack of new markets. The industry can not produce enough blockbuster drugs to maintain revenue. As a result they seek to open new consumer markets in the world. In 2003 DG Enterprise proposed to relax the ban on DTCA in the European Union. This prompted a campaign by HAI Europe and its partners to demonstrate the negative consequences of DTCA as seen in the USA and New Zealand, the only two countries where DTCA is legal. The campaign also pointed out the devastating effects DTCA could have in developing countries.

The response of the drug companies has been to step up efforts to influence the content of drug information and awareness campaigns. HAI Europe believes that it must be clear to patients who is behind the information they are basing their treatment choices on. These choices are also dependent on the advice that health professionals offer - in turn, this advice needs to be based on access to information about clinical trials and data collected through post-marketing surveillance.

Patients often turn to health NGOs or patient groups for information. HAI Europe feels that it is essential that patients are aware of links between some patients groups and drug companies. Companies have a strategy of sponsoring patients groups in order to further market their products.

Although banned in Europe, DTCA is still a live issue in a number of other countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. HAI Europe supports partners in these countries against DTCA and promotes the provision of quality, unbiased and useful information