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DTC Down Under

I read an interesting column on 10/7 from an Australian web site called crikey.com. It is very critical of the Australian health ministry for not cracking down on unbranded disease education ads sponsored by drug companies. The column bemoans the fact that Australian citizens are being bombarded with these ads and somehow drug companies are using loopholes to get away with it.

The Australian code allows disease education ads so no one is getting away with it. The author, Dr. Agnes Vitry does not like the fact that new medicines are more likely to be withdrawn as side effects unseen in clinical studies are discovered. Therefore she favors limiting information on new drugs, even for unbranded company sponsored disease education ads which she calls de facto DTC.

The same complaints have been heard in Canada and Europe for years. Somehow, Dr. Vitry sees a threat to public health by drug companies being allowed to advertise help seeking ads. The reality is that no government has been successful banning health information since the advent of the Internet. Unless governments take the North Korean approach and forbid the flow of any information from other countries, the information will be freely available on the Internet. There is no research that shows consumer awareness of new drugs is a public health concern.

Canada is failing in trying to pretend the U.S. media does not exist. Obviously Canadians are seeing U.S. ads through media spill and free availability of U.S. magazines and newspapers. The Canadian, European and Australian governments have a right to forbid branded or unbranded DTC. Clearly they have an interest in encouraging use of and providing low cost generics to their populace under their government assisted health plans. What is apparent is information does get through easily on branded drugs via the web. Citizens with certain conditions or diseases who want to know the latest drugs easily get that information from U.S. web sites.

The Europeans are still debating how much information to allow. Canadian DTC critics are calling for more enforcement of media spill with forbidden ads. Their attempts will fail, however, and their citizens have and will have access to drug ads at will. Yes, de facto DTC is in every country with Internet access. Putting the genie back in the bottle will not work. I am afraid the rest of the world will fall victim to unfettered health information from the U.S. whether they like it or not. Regulations prohibiting what citizens see on paper is irrelevant in the digital age.