Section 14

The Consumers’ Institute has decided to celebrate World Consumer Rights Day by calling for consumers’ rights to be curtailed, specifically the right to be informed about pharmaceuticals via television advertising.

Consumers International, the organisation behind the campaign internationally, has a page dedicated to explaining why direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising is unethical. That page has a single heading: “Fuelled by profit”. Shocking stuff.

In the culmination of several seconds of research, Consumer research writer Belinda Allan determines, “DTCA’s primary objective, no matter what gloss is placed on the information, is to sell more product.” Another shocking revelation.

The comment above about calling for consumers’ rights to be curtailed is tongue in cheek - there is no such right. You can’t force a TV station show you these advertisements. There is a genuine right that is being curtailed here though and that is the right of drug manufacturers to speak about their products.

These products have been approved by MedSafe and are governed by the Medicines Act, advertising claims are governed by the Fair Trading Act, these drugs are legal to buy (on prescription), it’s legal to ask your doctor for them, it’s legal for your doctor to tell you about them. It is preposterous to say that it should be illegal for the manufacturer to tell people they exist and what they’re used for.

Setting aside the outrageous attempt to gag pharamceuticals companies, what is the practical benefit of a ban? The only thing these advertisements can do is encourage people to ask their doctor for a particular drug, a perfectly legal activity. And if the doctor doesn’t think that a drug is suitable for any given patient that’s the end of it - no prescription, no sale.

Perhaps these “consumers’ rights” groups should take off their anti-corporate blinkers for a moment, stop trying to squash people’s right to express themselves, and spend more time worrying about what consumers actually want. A recent report on the topic from the Foundation for Advertising Research concludes:

From a consumer viewpoint DTCA has many advantages and few disadvantages. Consumers do not share the concerns expressed by critics of DTCA of consumer safety, increased costs, patient-doctor relationships and medicalisation. Instead they believe DTCA enables them to obtain useful information, a sense of empowerment, a prompt to obtain medical advice and a basis for meaningful and more informed discussions with their doctor about their healthcare.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Advertising, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.