New Zealand's health minister, Annette King, will seek final approval from the cabinet later this month for the adoption of common standards with Australia on drug marketing, as a way of instituting a ban on advertising prescription only drugs directly to consumers.
New Zealand medical and consumer groups have cautiously welcomed the move as likely to result in the adoption of the Australian standard, which bans such advertising of prescription drugs but allows general campaigns raising awareness of disease.
After a pre-Christmas Cabinet meeting, a brief press release by Ms King said that she had been authorised to "seek to reach agreement with Australia in March 2004" on a common standard on drug promotion (3 January, p 8). A spokesman for Ms King said final details on the plan would be put to the cabinet on 26 January.
The decision comes after the signing of a treaty in mid-December by the Australian and New Zealand governments to create a single agency regulating the registration and promotion of drugs, complementary health products, and medical devices.
In February 2003 a report by senior academic staff at all four of New Zealand's medical schools, "For Health or Profit?," proposed a ban on such advertising and the establishment of an independent advisory service for doctors and consumers. The report persuaded Ms King to review drug advertising standards.
The report's lead author, Professor Les Toop, from the University of Otago's Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, welcomed Ms King's announcement as a first step in reigning in the promotion of expensive new drugs. "We are obviously very pleased that it looks like brand advertising will go," he said. However, Professor Toop is wary about the possibility that unbranded campaigns on disease awareness will remain unregulated.
New Zealand and the United States are the only developed countries that permit direct to consumer advertising for prescription drugs. A spokesman for Ms King was tight lipped on the prospect of a ban on such advertising, stating only that the cabinet would finalise the details later this month.
Minutes from a discussion at the New Zealand Direct Marketing Association in November 2003 on the possibility of mobilising the association's members argued that a ban on advertising of prescription drugs would set a dangerous precedent.
The minutes stated, "The implications of what happens with this down the road for fast food and advertising to children will be stressed. The focus will be on freedom of communication and responsible, informed choice—we have the guidelines in place already and this has been working for the industry as a whole."
The chief body in New Zealand for the drugs industry, Researched Medicines Industry Association of New Zealand, declined to comment on the basis that the final decision had not been made. However, on its website the association argues that brand name advertising can "increase patient understanding and awareness of health problems, which can influence patients to seek early advice about treatment."