GPs in New Zealand are petitioning the health minister to ban the advertising of prescription drugs to patients. New Zealand is one of only two countries that allow drug companies to advertise directly to the public; the other is the United States.
But GPs in New Zealand say that such advertising causes many problems that are bad for doctors, the economy, and patients. They have estimated that it cost the country $NZ2.7m (£0.94m; $1.56m; €1.3m) between April 2002 and January 2003 to switch people to a new asthma inhaler after it was widely advertised on television. The switch was not necessarily right for all patients, say the GPs. But because patients had seen it advertised they were determined to have it, spending some of New Zealand's health budget along the way.
"GPs are particularly upset by the misleading content of many of the advertisements and the commercial pressure this puts them under to prescribe advertised drugs, even when they're no better than existing alternatives or are not suitable for the patient," said Professor Les Toop, from the Christchurch School of Medicine, who heads the campaign for a ban. "Explaining why particular drugs are unsuitable or unaffordable takes valuable time that someone has to pay for. GPs have told us that patients, particularly the elderly, see these ads and become unnecessarily anxious that they are not getting the right treatment."
At the moment direct to consumer advertising in new Zealand is regulated by the industry that produces the advertisements, the drug companies, and it takes many weeks for complaints from the public to be followed up, a long time after the impact of any particular campaign has reached patients.
Professor Toop and his colleagues believe that people want good quality health information that provides a balanced view of the benefits, risks, and costs of all treatment options from an independent source, instead of advertising. "The public wants and needs information about medicines, but they want to get it from a trustworthy source," he said.
Health minister Annette King is due to advise parliament in the first week of July on whether to ban direct to consumer advertising. If she recommends a ban and is supported by parliament it could take two years for the new legislation to come into effect.