The Best Medicines Coalition both supports and encourages an informed consumer/patient,
and in fact advocates that end users of pharmaceutical products have the fullest possible
information about any drug they consume. This includes both the benefits and the risks of
any product as well as alternative treatment choices.

BMC Position Statement:

The BMC advocates for consumer/patient education on the drugs prescribed to them by their
physicians. The Coalition’s view is that, drugs are serious medical interventions, and that
most drugs can have potentially serious side effects over both the short and long term.
Therefore patients require education on both the benefits as well as risks for any drug
prescribed. They also require information on alternative treatments that may be less invasive,
or less costly. Education serves the public good; advertising is self-serving. Merely informing
the public of a drug’s availability is not education.

The BMC will continue to work with Health Canada as part of its on-going efforts to develop
health-protection legislation, in developing lay-language drug Product Monographs.¹ Our
consumer group members will also work with pharmaceutical companies to help them
develop evidence based consumer education that will help them present the risks and
benefits of their products in a balanced view. Health consumer-focussed organizations needs
to encourage both the pharmaceutical industry as well as the federal government to work
together on using the billions of dollars currently spent on advertising to develop better
education tools on the purpose, safety and efficacy of drugs being produced today. Therefore
the BMC strongly encourages the Federal government to maintain its current ban on DTCA,
and to enforce its current legislation.

Background and Rationale:

In the world today, two countries allow direct-to-consumer- advertising (DTCA), that is
pharmaceutical companies advertising their drugs in the public media. These countries are
the United States and New Zealand. In 1997 the Federal Drug Agency (FDA) in the United
States deregulated the right to advertise pharmaceutical products, albeit with heavy
restrictions. By the year 2000 pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. spent $2.5 billion on
such advertising.² The FDA is currently reviewing its DTCA policies because of the number of
complaints they have received from consumers, consumer groups and the medical
community. In several cases, after objections by consumer groups the FDA has forced some
drug companies to withdraw their ads. In addition, major drug companies invest twice as
much in their administrative, advertising and marketing campaigns as they do in their
research and development.³ Because of the availability of American TV channels to the
majority of Canadians and magazines there is much cross border access to American DTCA
materials. In Canada, drug companies have been pushing the envelope in their media ads.
Generally, in Canada, we see the same ad as in the U.S., but without the words

Those who support DTCA argue that consumers have the right to know about treatment
options; that some people with undiagnosed conditions seek care in response to DTCA; that
the regulatory status quo is paternalistic toward consumers; that de facto DTCA already exists
in Canada because of American deregulation⁴; and that because of the rules in Canada, drug
companies are left with messages that are ambiguous or unclear.⁵ They also argue for
"freedom of speech”" and state that there has been no proven harm in DTCA.

Those who are against DTCA assert that consumer safety is put at risk by direct to consumer
ads’ that advertising drives up the costs of prescription drugs because of both the cost of
advertising and doctors are often pressed to fulfill name brands from their patients; that the
objectivity of DTCA is questionable because the manufacturers are in an unavoidable conflict
of interest regarding the safety and efficacy of their products; the only reason that Canada is
currently compelled to examine its advertising ban is because of American deregulation; and
there is an unprecedented rise in claims for prescription drugs.

DTCA is a public health issue, and one that has been hotly debated by both non-profit
consumer organizations, and by several national women’s groups. The working group on
Women and Health Protection, DES Action Canada, the Canadian Women’s Health Network
and Breast Cancer Action Montreal⁶ are all groups that have both argued vociferously against
DTCA and further have made complaints to Health Canada critiquing the Allesse and Diane-
35 and other drug campaigns”.⁷ This issue has also been clearly divisive to some voluntary
organizations.

It is also important to note that the Romanow Report⁸ expressed clear opposition to DTCA.
The discussion is in reference to the establishment of a National Drug Agency, which among
various roles would be:

"to communicate evidence-based information and guidance to both health
professionals and to patients, using various media including the Internet. There is no
doubt that the public wants more information about drugs and their effectiveness.
Rather than leave this to pharmaceutical companies, the National Drug Agency could
meet this need by providing balanced, objective information in an accessible
manner. This is a much better approach than direct-to-consumer advertising in place
in the United States. This type of advertising is a major business in the United States
and it has been shown to affect patients’ requests for drugs. Studies suggest that
since restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising in the United States were relaxed
in 1997, nearly $3 billion have been spent each year on advertising drugs to
American consumers (Morgan and Hurley 2002a). The federal government should
continue to prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs in Canada.
The role of informing Canadians is better served by the National Drug Agency acting
in the public interest."⁹

1 Cross reference to BMC A5- Marketing and Advertising Best Medicines- Target Audience and
Purpose.
2 Batt, Sharon, “You, Your Breast Cancer Group and Prescription Drug Ads”, Network News,
Canadian Breast Cancer Network, Spring, 2002, pp.6-7.
3 The Canadian Arthritis Society policy on DTCA.
4 Ibid.
5 Wong- Rieger, Durhane, Canadians Demand Regulated Direct–to- Consumer Advertising of
Prescription Drugs” Network News, Canadian Breast Cancer Network, Vo.7, Number 1, Spring 2002,
pp. 8-9
6 Batt, op.cit.
7 Ibid.
8 Romanow, Roy, The Future of Health Care in Canada, Government of Canada, November 2002, pp.
202-203.
9 Ibid.