In France, as in Europe, medical advertising is submitted to a legislation. Pharmaceutical laboratories have to be careful every time they issue a new medicine. There are only two countries which allow medical advertising which are the United States of America, and New Zealand. Indeed, in France, advertising drugs is forbidden if the drug has to be prescribed by a doctor, or if this drug is reimbursed by social security. Making advertisement for a drug would induce people to buy it, and by the way increase the social security deficit. Indeed, in Europe, there are two kinds of advertising legislation: advertising to the General public and advertising to health professionals. Referring to the Council Directive of 31 March 1992 on the advertising of medicinal products for human use, article 2 states that: '1. Member States shall prohibit any advertising of a medicinal product in respect of which a marketing authorization has not been granted in accordance with Community law. 2. All parts of the advertising of a medicinal product must comply with the particulars listed in the summary of product characteristics. 3. The advertising of a medicinal product shall encourage the rational use of the medicinal product, by presenting it objectively and without exaggerating its properties.
[...] So we can see that medical advertising is strictly regulated in Europe, but all these points are not always respected. In France for instance, doctors often receive advantages in nature from the medical sales representatives when they come to visit them. The medicine is presented with all its characteristics, and indirectly, in exchange of prescriptions, the doctor receives some low value gifts most of the time (pens, calendars ) or even more valued gifts like MP3 players, USB sticks, webcams or GPS routers. [...]
[...] Moreover, the study (http://www.kff.org/rxdrugs/6084-index.cfm) found that every spent by the pharmaceutical laboratories on direct to consumer advertising brought additional $4,20 in drug sales (for the year 2000). In the USA, expenditures for prescription drugs has tripled since 1990 and was worth more that $140,6 million in 2001. The spending on advertising has increased a lot during recent years in the US. Indeed, it passed from $ 9.2 billion in 1996 to $ 19.1 billion in 2001. This represents an average of 16% of increase per year. [...]
[...] Member States may also require such advertising to include the selling price or indicative price of the various presentations and the conditions for reimbursement by social security bodies. Article Any documentation relating to a medicinal product which is transmitted as part of the promotion of that product to persons qualified to prescribe or supply it shall include as a minimum the particulars listed in Article 6 and shall state the date on which it was drawn up or last revised [ Article Where medicinal products are being promoted to persons qualified to prescribe or supply them, no gifts, pecuniary advantages or benefits in kind may be supplied, offered or promised to such persons unless they are inexpensive and relevant to the practice of medicine or pharmacy [ ] 3. [...]
[...] The quality use of medicines: People admit that by seeing an ad about a medicine, they put pressure on the health professionals to prescribe drugs that normally, wouldn't be prescribed (because not seen on the ad). So the judgement is influenced, and may be sometimes inappropriate. [...]
[...] This is one of the dark aspects of direct to consumer advertising. Accordingly to the studies above and what has been already written, we can say that the medical advertising (direct to consumer advertising) works quite well, since patients now ask their doctor for such or such medication. The numbers also show that this direct to consumer advertising is beneficial for the pharmaceutical laboratories, since the average number of prescriptions in the US increased from 7,3 in 1992 to 10,4 in 2000 (per person) (http://www.newstarget.com/010315.html). [...]
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