EU Committee rejects advertising prescription
medicines to the public
HAI Europe calls on Parliament to support Committee's decision
3 October 2002,
The European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health
and Consumer Policy voted yesterday to defeat a Commission proposal
aimed at relaxing the ban on advertising prescription drugs to
the public. The vote came as part of the Committee's consideration
of the pharmaceutical review legislation.
A majority of committee members rejected the Commission's proposal
to allow drug companies to provide information to the public about
treatments for HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and asthma. While industry
representatives and DG Enterprise have argued that the proposal
was about providing information, public health groups, including
HAI Europe, have emphasised that the proposal would actually allow
promotion disguised as information to reach consumers.
"The Committee clearly recognised that the European public
needs quality information about medicines and other treatments,
but saw that this proposal wasn't the way to provide it,"
said Margaret Ewen, Co-director of HAI Europe and its DTCA campaign
leader. "They understood that this proposal is actually about
allowing companies to advertise their products to a whole new
audience."
"The Committee's stance will not only benefit EU consumers,
but also people in many other countries, notably in the developing
world," said Charles Medawar, Director of the UK-based consumer
group, Social Audit. "This was an important test case and
the Committee has taken an important and good decision, clearly
defining the limits of market-driven medicine and making a strong
commitment to Health for All."
Instead of approving the Commission's proposal, the Committee
called on the Commission to outline a comprehensive consumer/patient
information strategy ensuring good quality, objective, reliable
and non-promotional information about medicines and other treatments.
This is to be done in consultation with consumer and patient organisations.
The full Parliament will vote on the provisions of the comprehensive
pharmaceutical review legislation later this month.
HAI Europe has been actively campaigning against the Commission's
proposal for the past year. Two of its members, Barbara Mintzes
and Charles Medawar, have published background briefing papers
on the issue that can be downloaded from its website at: http://www.haiweb.org/campaign/DTCA/index.html.
For more information, contact:
Lisa Hayes
HAI Europe
Tel: (+31-20) 683 3684
Fax: (+31-20) 685 5002
e-mail: info@haiweb.org
mobile: (+31-6) 24 22 5847
|