Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Medicines :: Media

Europe

2004
Finnish physicians show little support for consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
Aim: To study Finnish physicians' opinions of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs (DTCA) and other drug information sources for patients.
Method: A survey was sent to all working-aged physicians (n=16,698; response rate 85%).
Results: Almost all physicians were against full DTCA, but half would allow advertising indirectly via patients organisations or healthcare units; 18% were against all types of DTCA. Thirty-six percent generally considered drug advertisements to patients and consumers to be harmful or useless.
Conclusion: Further discussion of DTCA and other means of disseminating drug information are needed.

by Hanna Toiviainen, Lauri Vuorenkoski and Elina Hemminki
Finnish National Research & Development Centre for Welfare and Health
(STAKES) N Z Med J. 2004;117(1195) http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/117-1195/907


23 October 2002
Financial Times publishes: Europe seeks to calm nerves over US-style drug advertising, by Geoff Dyer. The Guardian publishes: Europe rejects drug advertising, by Claire Cozens.

5 September 2002
Dutch Inspectorate hardly monitors advertising of medicines, says Joop Bouma in an article published in the Dutch newspaper Trouw.
Click here to read more articles in Trouw related to this (in Dutch)

17 August 2002
Group of Dutch GPs call for boycott of Novartis products due to company’s recent DTCA campaign.
BMJ publishes article, including HAI Europe's comments.

3 June 2002
Financial Times publishes: Public says ban on drug adverts should remain, by Nicholas Timmins, Public Policy Editor.

17 May 2002
The Lancetprints an editorial against the introduction of DTCA in Europe, saying "the potential disadvantages from DTCA, as judged by experiences in the USA and New Zealand, outweigh any claimed benefits."

13 April 2002
The British Medical Journal publishes editorial by Barbara Mintzes outlining negative consequences of DTCA as part of a whole theme issue focusing on medicalisation. Read the response posted on the site by the UK's Consumers Association.

12 April 2002
Drug ads can persuade people they are sick, researcher says. Visits to MD for help with baldness soared after year of TV ads for hair-loss pill, by André Picard, public health reporter for Globe and Mail.
Click here to read the article

2 April 2002
Canadian Medical Association Journal report on the HAI Europe-EPHA symposium on direct to consumer promotion

23 March 2002
Canada's health minister states she sees no reason to allow U.S.-style advertising in Canada.
Click here to read more

8 March 2002
Opinion piece against allowing direct-to-Promotion to Consumers in Canada.

14 February 2002
Promotion of Prescription Drugs to Consumers, published as a special article in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Click here to read

2 February 2002
A Canadian/US study, published in the British Medical Journal, on the influence of direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising and patients' requests on prescribing decisions by Barbara Mintzes, Joel Lexchin et al.
Click here to read

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