European parliament debated the possibility of letting pharmaceutical companies direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising and experts warned this could be detrimental for public health.
There are currently only two developed countries that allow this type of advertising, New Zealand and the United States and both have seen significant opposition to their existing advertising laws.
The European parliament is looking at allowing the drug industry to play a greater role in educating the public about prescription drugs with no restriction on the type of media.
Opponents believe that the pharmaceutical industry will not provide "balanced, comparative and comprehensive information, and that the proposals amount to advertising by stealth." claims an article in the BMJ.
In 2006 pharmaceutical companies spent more than $5 billion on advertising prescription drugs to the public. If there was no profit to be made, I doubt they'd be "wasting" their money just to educate people. I wonder how many more prescriptions get asked for after an "educational information blitz" by big pharma.
[Source: MedicalNewsToday]
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