The issues raised in 'Selling sickness - the pharmaceutical industry
and disease mongering' are borne out by recent research conducted by
Consumers' Association, published as a policy report: 'Promotion of
prescription drugs: public health or private profit?' (July 2001).
We found many examples of pharmaceutical companies forming alliances
with patient organisations in order to get their marketing messages out to
a wider public under the guise of providing patients with much-needed
information. There is now a great deal of pressure being employed to free
drug companies up to reach the public directly.
This raises some interesting and significant questions, the impact of
which have not yet been fully considered. For example, why would
pharmaceutical companies continue to fund patient organisations when they
can communicate with patients directly? How will this affect what the
patient organisations are able to do and the individuals who rely on their
information and support? Will this increase usage of the internet for the
purchase of drugs that doctors are not willing to prescribe – and with
what safeguards and regulation to protect consumers from poor medical
advice through this route? Perhaps the most important question of all is
why there are proposals currently before the European Parliament to reduce
regulation of the pharmaceutical industry and to enable direct to consumer
advertising of prescription medicines.
All the available evidence – and this is considerable – shows that
this will bring about far-reaching and extremely negative consequences for
public health throughout the EU, in order to satisfy commercial interests.
Rapid Response:
Public health or private profit?
The issues raised in 'Selling sickness - the pharmaceutical industry
and disease mongering' are borne out by recent research conducted by
Consumers' Association, published as a policy report: 'Promotion of
prescription drugs: public health or private profit?' (July 2001).
We found many examples of pharmaceutical companies forming alliances
with patient organisations in order to get their marketing messages out to
a wider public under the guise of providing patients with much-needed
information. There is now a great deal of pressure being employed to free
drug companies up to reach the public directly.
This raises some interesting and significant questions, the impact of
which have not yet been fully considered. For example, why would
pharmaceutical companies continue to fund patient organisations when they
can communicate with patients directly? How will this affect what the
patient organisations are able to do and the individuals who rely on their
information and support? Will this increase usage of the internet for the
purchase of drugs that doctors are not willing to prescribe – and with
what safeguards and regulation to protect consumers from poor medical
advice through this route? Perhaps the most important question of all is
why there are proposals currently before the European Parliament to reduce
regulation of the pharmaceutical industry and to enable direct to consumer
advertising of prescription medicines.
All the available evidence – and this is considerable – shows that
this will bring about far-reaching and extremely negative consequences for
public health throughout the EU, in order to satisfy commercial interests.
Competing interests: No competing interests