[Ip-health] Coming soon: the shopping channel run by drug firms

[Michelle Childs]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2084391,00.html

Coming soon: the shopping channel run by drug firms


Sarah Boseley
Monday May 21, 2007
The Guardian

Four of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies are proposing to
launch a television station to tell the public about their drugs,
amid strenuous lobbying across Europe by the industry for an end to
restrictions aimed at protecting patients. Pharma TV would be a
dedicated interactive digital channel funded by the industry with
health news and features but, at its heart, would be detailed
information from drug companies about their medicines.

A 10-minute pilot DVD, seen by the Guardian, featured a white-coated
doctor discussing breast cancer and a woman patient who reassured
viewers that "there are many new treatments available". Under the
proposals, viewers could use their remote control to click on
treatment options and read what manufacturers have to say about the
latest branded breast cancer drugs.
Four companies, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis and Procter &
Gamble, are behind the pilot, which they are offering to the European
commission as a way to give patients more information. The commission
is consulting on potential changes to the regulations that ban all
direct-to-consumer advertising of medicinal drugs.

The industry has been lobbying in Europe to be allowed direct access
to patients. It argues that lifting restrictions would help its
competitiveness and has hinted that companies may relocate to the US,
where they can advertise to patients who then demand drugs from their
doctors. Profits have soared there as a result.

The proposed change in the rules is being led within the commission
by its trade arm, DG Enterprise, and not health, DG Sanco. It is
backed by a number of influential patient groups that are themselves
heavily funded by drug companies. But consumer organisations are
opposed, warning that the companies will play down risk, and that
their real interest lies in boosting profits.

The International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB) - consumer
publications which analyse the benefits of drugs and draw comparisons
between them - warns that the industry is not a reliable source of
trustworthy information.

The US and New Zealand allow drug companies to advertise to the
public; the ISDB says in both these countries this has been shown to
be detrimental to health.

"Pharmaceutical companies' messages are focused on relatively few top
sellers, exaggerating effects and concealing risks, confusing
patients and putting pressure on doctors to prescribe drugs they
would not use otherwise," it says. "Lack of comparative information
in advertising means people cannot choose among several options."
Johnson & Johnson presented the companies' proposals to a meeting in
Brussels of the Centre for Health, Ethics and Society, a thinktank
which describes itself as "developed in partnership with Johnson &
Johnson". The audience comprised members of the commission, patient
groups and others.

The European Patient Information Channel, as industry is calling it,
could be available on the internet as well as TV, and would offer "on
demand" information about drugs "to enable patients and citizens to
make better decisions", said Scott Ratzan of Johnson & Johnson. It
would be self-regulating, with a board of medical, pharmaceutical and
patient representatives to hear complaints.

The TV pilot was welcomed by the European Patients' Forum. The forum,
an umbrella group, is one of only two patient organisations admitted
to the working group set up by the commission to discuss changes in
the rules.

Although its executive director, Nicola Bedlington, said the pilot's
"slightly sanctimonious and patronising" tone needed improvement, she
and other patient representatives present approved it in principle.

---------
Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
Knowledge Ecology International
michelle.childs@keionline.org