Standardised code welcome
July 2, 2010
THE Australian Self-Medication
Industry has welcomed the Federal
Government’s calls for the
pharmaceutical and therapeutic
industries to strengthen and
standardise the self-regulation of
advertising guidelines (PD 01 Jul).
“ASMI has been a strong
advocate of self-regulation, and its
members are bound by a Code of
Conduct which has been authorised
by the ACCC,” said ASMI executive
director, Juliet Seifert.
“We are particularly pleased that
the parliamentary secretary is
advocating stronger selfregulation,”
she added.
Sierfert agreed with the
government’s stance that in order
for there to be a “level playing
field” all sponsors need to adhere
to a common set of principles.
“We will be working with
government, consumers, healthcare
professionals and industry
colleagues to implement
arrangements that will enhance
consumer confidence in the scheme
and provide greater certainty and
clarity for industry,” she added.
MEANWHILE La Trobe
University’s School of Public Health
Senior Lecturer, Dr Ken Harvey,
responded to the announcement
saying that whilst it was welcome,
the government’s position paper
ignored the fact that both
consumers and healthcare
professionals, “are the recipients of
therapeutic goods promotion and
as such should be involved in
formulating the principles to which
industry-wide Codes should adhere”.
“Industry formulated selfregulatory
codes often lag behind
consumer and health professional
views due to the absence of
external stakeholders in their
formulation,” Harvey said.
Another criticism levelled at the
government’s proposal was that it
only addressed advertising pertaining
to high-risk therapeutic goods.
“Ironically, the major concern
about the current co-regulatory
system for the control promotion of
therapeutic goods in Australia is the
promotion of so-called lower-risk
medicines and devices to consumers,
not the promotion of higher-risk
products professionals who could
also be expected to have more
critical appraisal skills,” Harvey said.
In terms of national code
compliance Harvey also noted that
the government’s “expectation” of
industry compliance was not
stringent enough, and that
compliance with a relevant Code
“must be made a condition for
registration, listing or including a
therapeutic good on the ARTG and
embedded in law”.
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