Direct Consumer Promotion of Prescription Drugs: A Review of the Literature and the New Zealand Experience

Abstract

This conceptual paper reviews the current controversy in New Zealand surrounding direct- to-consumer (DTC) promotion of prescription drugs. However, the issues raised have resonance and relevance in many other countries around the world, not least occasioned by the advent and spreading through social systems over time by the World Wide Web and the Internet. The paper begins by reviewing the principal legislative and regulatory environment in one of the small number of markets where such direct prescription drug promotion is permitted. Then examined are the arguments put forward by supporters and by opponents of the activity. Such arguments include: whether increased costs likely to be incurred through the number of patients obtaining DTC prescriptions and medicines can be balanced against potential savings in other areas of health management such as hospital care?; what, if any, impact DTC promotion has on physician/patient relationships?; whether DTC promotion improves compliance rates?; linkages between DTC promotion costs and drug pricing; and the role the Internet/World Wide Web may play in drug promotion to consumers. The authors then follow with recommendations to facilitate informed debate regarding DTC promotional activity, both in the countries that do currently permit it, and in the many countries which do not currently permit DTC, but who are reviewing their position on this important matter. The paper concludes by offering a number of potential directions for future research.