ASMI urges S3 advertising
May 5, 2010
THE Australian Self-Medication
Industry has today called for
reforms to advertising regulations
for medical products to allow
consumer promotion of Schedule 3
medications in Australia.
ASMI said that the current
prohibition on consumer
advertising of S3 medicines unless
they have an Appendix H listing “is
short-changing consumers, and
harming manufacturers who are
unable to bring products to the
notice of consumers who may
benefit from them”.
Executive director, Juliet Seifert,
said “It does not make sense to
have a category of medicines that
is available to the public, without
prescription, but which is not able
to be advertised to those who may
need them.
“If these medicines are
sufficiently safe to be allowed to be
sold without the need for a
prescription, it also makes sense to
allow them to be responsibly
advertised,” she said.
The move follows this month’s
rescheduling of codeine-containing
analgesics, but also applies to
other S3 items including proton
pump inhibitors and treatments for
eye infections and weight loss.
Seifert said the situation was
damaging to the industry, with one
major pharmaceutical firm
required to restructure operations
because its S3 product wasn’t able
to gain the advertising necessary
to reach a broad-based consumer
market.
“If the current restrictions remain
the S3 category without advertising
will remain a backwater of littleknown
products that are largely
uneconomic for providers,” she
warned.
“It’s time that the advertising
controls relevant to the Pharmacist
Only category were reviewed in
light of recent scheduling
decisions, and the need for
increased consumer awareness
about latest treatment options,”
Seifert added, saying that without
knowledge of the alternative
treatments available patients are
also more likely to have to visit “an
already overstretched GP” for
minor ailments, “when an effective
OTC remedy is available at a
pharmacy”.
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