Drug advertising is bad medicine: a needed prescription

Op-Ed published September 16, 2003 in The Toronto Star By: Denis Morrice

Although patients should take more responsibility for their health, paid advertising, as extolled by the president of the Canadian Newspaper Association is not the answer.

It is very difficult not to note the bias and conflict of interest of such a column appearing in a

newspaper that would benefit from the increased advertising profits if the doors were swung wide open on pharmaceutical advertising.

Don't get me wrong, patients deserve information and education, but there is a difference between this and straight advertising. As co-chair of the Best Medicines Coalition, an advocacy group representing millions of Canadians, we believe patients and consumers should be educated about disease signs, symptoms and different treatments.

However, this does not mean advertising as currently available in the U.S. Patients and consumers need to gain information through discussions with appropriate health-care professionals, through health and consumer voluntary organizations, through government, including Health Canada and, finally, through the pharmaceutical companies.

There must be a balance between advertising and education for all pharmaceutical products.

The current legislative renewal of the Health Protection Act must defend and protect patients and
consumers from inappropriate drug advertising; ensure patient-friendly monographs or other essential information, ensure contact information is provided and ensure linkages exist with an effective postmarket surveillance system for patients and health-care providers to access.

What better way to do this than to require that, for every dollar spent by the industry on advertising pharmaceutical products, another dollar should be donated by the industry to a national drug education program or to voluntary health organizations to spend directly on education of patients/consumers and health-care providers, regarding the pharmaceutical products being advertised.

This is a debate that must take place with consumers and patients at the table. Patients need to work with Health Canada, industry and the for-profit sector to ensure the development of a national consumer and health-care provider education program.

Denis Morrice