CAB ramps up lobby for changes to allow direct-to-consumer advertising by drugcos

Broadcasters are stepping up efforts to convince the federal government to eliminate legislative hurdles that prevent millions in big pharma dollars from flowing into their advertising coffers each year. The president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) says his group has made the issue a top priority because it’s important to keep the ball rolling after having made significant progress on the matter under former Health minister Allan Rock. "We’re making it a priority primarily because we feel that it would be to squander an opportunity not to press forward with the good work that the coalition had done in raising the awareness of government officials," Glenn O’Farrell tells CCR. O’Farrell notes that the Alliance for Access to Medical Information – a coalition comprised of the CAB, the Canadian Newspaper Association, Magazines Canada, and the Institute for Canadian Advertising – has "nurtured and developed" the issue with Health Canada officials and had "brought the issue to a significant point of development under the former Minister of Health." With Anne McLellan recently taking over the portfolio, O’Farrell says the group has had to "take the peddle off the metal" to give her a chance to settle in. The CAB will meet with her in the coming weeks. In the meantime, however, it has embarked on a media blitz promoting its position on direct-to-consumer advertising, with stories appearing recently in newspapers across the country. O’Farrell is pitching a "made-in-Canada" proposal for television, radio, and print drug advertising. "We need a made-in-Canada modest regulatory regime to ensure that pharmaceutical drugs are prescreened. Canadians need to become better informed in the kind of options that are available to them and to frankly have more meaningful relations with their physicians," he says. "This proposal is about providing more information. Doctors will continue to be the only source for prescriptions to Canadian consumers. What we’re suggesting is that a better informed consumer who can engage in a meaningful discussion with his or her doctor is a better thing than a less informed consumer who doesn’t have that enabling." Currently, it is illegal in Canada to advertise specific drugs used to treat specific ailments. If the doors were opened up, O’Farrell estimates that about $400 million would be spent by the pharmaceutical industry on media advertising, and 60 per of that would flow to broadcasters. Some people and groups look suspiciously upon the claim that opening up Canada’s airwaves would provide consumers with sound medical information. "I have no doubt the U.S. approach is profitable for advertisers and pharmaceutical companies, but it is also expensive to the healthcare system and likely offers no health benefits to the population," Dr. David Gardner, assistant professor at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine and College of Pharmacy, wrote in a letter to the editor this month in the National Post. O’Farrell points out that "what’s unequitable here is that American companies are allowed to access Canadian consumers while Canadian advertisers with Canadian products are not allowed to access those consumers." He adds: "Direct-to-consumer advertising is already in Canada via American networks and publications. I think in the month of January 2002, there were 102 full pages of pharmaceutical ads in the top ten American publications circulated in Canada… Canadian patients and consumers are being exposed to American advertising that is totally unregulated and not premonitored. It is creating confusion here." He suggests that unlike in the United States, Canadian pharma ads could be screened, perhaps through a private-public partnership with Health Canada and industry. Another safeguard could be that a newly launched drug could not be advertised for six to eight months, he adds.

CAB ramps up lobby for changes to allow direct-to-consumer advertising by drugcos

News | 01/31/2002 5:00 am EST

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