Call for drug ad ban in Australian prescribing software

A survey of drug advertisements in prescribing software used by Australian doctors found the vast majority of the advertisements broke the industry’s code of conduct and has led to calls for such advertising to be banned.

The survey examined the advertisements that appeared on Medical Director software, a package which its suppliers Health Communications Network say is used by more than 16,000 doctors in Australia including 85 per cent of computerised GPs and 1,200 specialists.

The authors from the School of Public Health at La Trobe University in Melbourne reported in the Medical Journal of Australia that 57 of the 60 advertisements making a promotional claim appeared noncompliant with one or more requirements of the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct.

The study also aimed to assess the opinions of Australian GPs about the advertisements by analysing a themed debate on the topic held on a GP computer group email forum. Of the 29 contributors, mainly GPs, who posted 174 emails to the forum there was little support for the advertisements, but some concern that the price of software would increase if they were removed.

The authors of the study suggested that pharmaceutical promotion in prescribing software should be banned, and inclusion of independent therapeutic information be mandated.

Advertisements do not appear in the commonly used prescribing software in the UK according to Dr Peter Fellows, a GP in Gloucestershire and chairman of the British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee prescribing-sub-committee.

He told EHI Primary Care: “It’s a problem with anything on the internet but the standard GP systems are very ethical and abide by the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry regulations.”