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MEPs reject US-style direct advertising of drugs

Rory Watson, Brussels

Members of the European parliament have categorically rejected tentative plans to allow pharmaceutical companies to provide information on drugs directly to the public in the European Union.

As part of its proposals to update existing EU legislation on the approval and marketing of drugs, the European Commission had suggested a five year pilot scheme during which firms could supply data directly to patients on three common illnesses: diabetes, asthma, and AIDS.

Erkki Liikanen, the European commissioner behind the proposal, insisted that the idea recognised that many patients already obtain fragmented information from the internet and stressed that it would not lead to US-style direct advertising to patients.

"Our proposal is that European citizens should obtain information that has been validated by European regulatory authorities and that follows guidelines to be agreed between the member states and the Commission," he explained.

His arguments did not convince the MEPs, who rejected the proposal by 494 votes to 42 in Strasbourg last week.

Leading the opposition to the scheme, British Labour MEP Catherine Stihler said: "We don't want consumers, sitting on their couches, bombarded with a hard sell from big drug companies in the break between Crossroads and Coronation Street. We're at a crossroadsif we open the door to direct advertising it's a slippery slope down the American road, where pink pills on TV ads offer a miracle solution to everything from baldness to chronic fatigue."

The comprehensive rejection, which has almost certainly sounded the death knell for the idea, has been welcomed by consumer organisations. The Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs, the Brussels based European umbrella association of national consumer bodies, warned that the concession would only have increased brand awareness but "would not help to increase disease or treatment awareness."

It pointed out that spending on drugs grew in the United States by $42.7bn (£28bn; 44bn) between 1993 and 1998, with $9.3bn of the increase being accounted for by the 10 drugs most heavily advertised directly to consumers.

However, the MEPs gave strong support to the proposal to speed up authorisation procedures for new drugs and to make innovative treatments available to all EU citizens at the same time. This would be achieved by making it mandatory for all drugs containing new active substancesabout 20 a yearto receive centralised authorisation from the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, instead of from individual national regulatory authorities.