International consumer group slates drug companies' marketing  practices

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7557.14-b

BMJ 2006;333:14 (1 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7557.14-b

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International consumer group slates drug companies’ marketing practices

London Michael Day

Drug companies continue to pull the wool over the eyes of patients and doctors, concludes a new report from Consumers International. The report lambasts the industry for its lack of transparency and unscrupulous marketing.

Consumers International has called on governments to rein in the industry’s practices that “misinform consumers about the benefits of the drugs they are buying.”

It warns that drug companies are adopting new ways to influence consumers, such as sponsoring patients’ groups and funding disease awareness campaigns, as well as using old methods such as offering hospitality to medical experts or “opinion leaders.”

Richard Lloyd, the director general of Consumers International, said: “The pharmaceutical industry spends nearly twice as much on marketing as it does on research and development, yet consumers know next to nothing about where this money is going. Marketing regulation must be revised to demand more transparency from drug companies.”

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