Euro MPs oppose educational adverts from the industry
A group of Members of the European Parliament have declared their opposition
to plans to allow pharmaceutical companies to publish information about
the treatment of three major diseases.
The European Parliament’s environment committee, which is responsible
for scrutinising medicines legislation, has said that it is vehemently
opposed to European Commission proposals to allow the pharmaceutical industry
to circulate information about medicines for the treatment of AIDS, asthma
and diabetes (PJ, 28 July 2001, p114).
The MEPs claimed that this would be the “first step toward consumer
advertising of prescription medicines in the guise of disease education”.
They said that the pharmaceutical industry is “incapable of providing
impartial information,” and that such information should be issued
by independent sources. The Commission’s proposals would allow companies
to send information about medicines used to treat the three conditions
to patients, or groups of patients, on request. No unsolicited material
would be allowed.
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