Strong Opposition to Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Medications: Call for Balanced Information

The Australian Medical Association

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia

Organisations representing Australia's health professionals and a key consumer advocate strongly oppose the introduction of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medications in Australia.

Such advertising is legal only in the United States and New Zealand. In those countries, particularly the USA, people are subjected to advertising messages linked to the promotion of particular prescription medications.

Between 1987 and 1992 in the USA there was a rapid increase in direct-to-consumer advertising. Research shows that in 1987, 18% of US consumers asked their doctors about specific prescription drugs. By 1992, 54% of consumers were asking about specific drugs.*

In the USA, direct advertising to consumers is defended as part of an effort to empower people with information. Canadian analysis of the advertising is that the information on risks and benefits showed a misleadingly positive representation of the product and a lack of attention to warnings.

Whatever its intention, the effect of advertising is to encourage consumers to ask their doctor to prescribe particular medications or particular brands. This places pressure on the doctor/patient relationship and may well lead to doctor-shopping by some patients in order to obtain a particular product.

The inevitable outcome of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medications is increased drug use - not necessarily effective or rational use - with increased costs to health care systems. Such advertising tends to promote the use of drugs over alternatives such as lifestyle changes and non-drug therapies.

Most consumers need and want more information about medicines and health, but advertising messages and promotional activities cannot satisfy that need. Advertising is about increasing sales, not about conveying balanced information in the interests of patient education. The US experience is that the great majority of advertising is for a very small number of products, providing a very limited and selective information source to consumers.

We support the ready availability of balanced information on prescription medication for consumers. But we must face the challenge of finding better ways to inform consumers than via a mechanism - advertising - the sole purpose of which is to create demand for particular products and increase sales.

* Mintzes B. Blurring the boundaries: new trends in drug promotion. Amsterdam: Health Action International Europe: 1998. <URL: http://www.haiweb.org/pubs/blurring/blurring.intro.html>